US experts training growers on water management

ISLAMABAD: David Williams, US Embassy’s Agriculture Counselor, on Tuesday said that Pakistan Water Dialogue Project (PWDP) helps the local farmers to more efficiently capture, store, and use water for agriculture. 

Williams said this while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the first workshop, where three experts from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are conducting water-resource workshops this week to support the PWDP.  

According to a statement, eighty-five senior officials and technical experts from the federal and provincial ministries, universities, and NGOs are attending the events, organised by the USDA and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). 

The USDA experts leading the workshops are Michael Kucera, an agronomist at USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service; Jon Fripp, a Stream Mechanics Civil Engineer at USDA’s Construction and Soil Management Center;  and  Hilary Landfried, a programme manager with the US Foreign Agricultural Service's Office of Capacity Building and Development. 

For six years now, USDA, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has worked to improve watershed rehabilitation and irrigation by promoting practices and technologies that assist in water and soil conservation. 

USDA’s work began in 2011, in partnership with ICARDA, with a five-year program to help rural farmers. The project established over 40 demonstration sites, published 150,000 brochures, held 240 farmers’ field days, and reached 14,000 farmers. 

Due to these efforts, more than 1,500 farmers have already adopted one or more of the promoted technologies. USDA also partnered with the International Water Management Institute from 2013-2015.

This program brought together local officials and USDA technical experts to develop the Pakistan Water Dialogue Consensus Action Plan.  In 2016, USDA and ICARDA began Phase II of the Pakistan Water Dialogue: Diffusion and Adoption through Partnerships and Action of the Best Watershed Rehabilitation and Irrigation Practices. This programme builds upon management practices developed in the earlier Watershed programme.