WRD’s institute takes training to the field, adopts Ariyalur village

To make its training programmes more relevant to field-level needs, the Water Resources Department’s Irrigation Management Training Institute (IMTI) has adopted a village to promote agricultural practices suited to local water availability.

For the first time, the Tiruchi-based institute, which was founded in 1984, has moved beyond classroom training to take its expertise to the field and identified Vettriyur in Ariyalur district to help farmers adopt crop production with low water use. The institute plans to expand the village adoption programme in the next few years.

A team of officials recently held a meeting with the farmers to assess the existing farming system and plan suitable capacity building interventions. Officials noted that Vettriyur was a relatively water-starved village with a cultivable area of nearly 914 hectare. The village has multiple cropping patterns with considerable irrigation potential.