Category: News & Events

Beating plastic pollution in agriculture – World Environment Day special

WOTR urges state and union governments to go beyond ban on single-use plastic bags and bottles, and look at its growing use in agriculture also. This practice, plasticulture, is extensively used in lining of farm ponds, green houses, micro-irrigation (drips and sprinklers) and plastic mulching and can threaten soil health and potentially enter food chain.

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Water Scenario in rural Jalna 2030: An introduction to the transformative scenario planning workshop (TSP)-1

Watershed Organisation Trust recently organized a two-day workshop on residential Transformative Scenario Planning (TSP) at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra Jalna. Titled. ‘Water Situation in Rural Jalna in 2030: For Domestic and Livelihood Needs with the support of Adaption at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (AASAR), Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF), UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada.40 participants representing diverse backgrounds like farmers, government officials, NGOs, experts, academic and research institutes, and farmer groups took an active part in the workshop.

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Building bridges: Engaging Stakeholders for strengthening Water Stewardship

Water Stewardship Initiative, in collaboration with Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF), is being implemented in 106 villages of Maharashtra and Telangana to facilitate and promote efficient water-use practices that are, economically efficient, socially judicious and environmentally sustainable. As a part of this initiative, the village stakeholder representative teams (VSRTs) are trained to undertake the responsibility of sustainably using local water-resources, for which they prepare water stewardship plans while working with their respective communities. Along with water harvesting and saving plans, water budgeting forms an important component of the water stewardship plans. Moreover, communities  collectively decide on social rules and norms to facilitate the implementation of the plans designed by them. 

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Under the blazing sun

The short film “Under the Blazing Sun” was shot during the summers of 2016 and 2017 in two semi- arid districts of Maharashtra in India. The film attempts to explore the problem of heat stress experienced by rural communities. While urban population is better equipped to tackle the heat problem, is that the case with the rural population? If yes how? If not then, what are their problems?

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One Million Farm ponds: A Revolution?

This week Eshwer Kale, a researcher at WOTR appeared on NDTV India’s Prime Time with Ravish Kumar to discuss the implications of the government’s emphasis on farm ponds in the budget. On the show Eshwer explained that the implementation and use of farm ponds Maharashtra, where farmers fill huge farm ponds, lined with plastic, by pumping groundwater is a cause for worry. This practice, rather than reducing the vulnerability of rural communities, may result in declining groundwater levels and the de facto privatisation of what was once a shared resource.

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