NABARD Chief General Manager R. Balachandran visited IRTC office on 11 January 2021 and interacted with the CEOs of the KFW soil project PFAs. Dr. Sreekumar, Director, IRTC presided over the meeting and DDM Lalu P.N. Kutty delivered the agenda for discussion.

There was a detailed discussion on the utilisation of maintenance fund, indicators for assessing KfW project and the loan scheme contemplated by NABARD with banks. Most of the participants favoured entrusting full responsibility to VWCs in concurrence with the concerned PFAs to decide on the utilisation of maintenance fund since it has been operational since the last ten years based on NABARD guidelines.

CGM also said that NABARD will come up with a direction regarding the parameters related to climate change resilience to be monitored for KfW projects. The visit was part of the annual assessment of NABARD- IRTC projects, mainly KfW Soil Project. The purpose of the projects under the programme is to reduce vulnerability to climate change of small-scale farmers in selected watersheds through the stabilization, enhancement and sustainable use of soil and water resources. IRTC as Project Facilitating Agency of eight Watersheds in Palakkad.