State Level Farmers Workshop

One of the important elements in the FNWSR project is the state level farmers’ workshop on water management to draw attention of farmers, policy makers, and other professionals in water sector.

Business session

On 5th April 04, Farmers workshop ‘Water and Farmers Network was organised by JalaSpandana at Hotel Oxford, Erode, Tamil Nadu. Farmers from various districts participated in the workshop. Mr. Raymond Peter, ED INPIM presided the inauguration session. The identified speakers mostly farmers presented the paper, followed by panel and group discussion. The programme of the workshop is as follows,

Mr. K. Thachinamurthy facilitated the paper presentations, discussions and prepared minutes of the meeting. The brief outline of the papers and introduction about the speakers was useful as the participants were from various districts were not aware of the details of the speakers. Moreover, the exercise of farmers presenting their findings and discussing among themselves is felt a new experience by the farmers

1. State Water Policy and PIM Act’ by Mr. K. Vadivelu, Executive Member, JalaSpandana and Secretary, LBP Farmers Federation, Erode
2. PIM and its Implementation Processes in TN’ by Mr. A.V.S. Velumayil, Vice President, JalaSpandana, Secretary, Peikulam Tank Association, Tuticorn
3. Role of Farmers Network in Strengthening PIM in TN’ by Mr. K.S. Balachander, Member, JalaSpandana, President, WUA, PAP Project, Pollachi
4. Formation of State Organisation for Water Management by farmers independent of JalaSpandana’ by R. Doraiswamy, Project Coordinator, FNWSR, JalaSpandana
5. Newsletter for Water Resource Management-Need and Practicalities’ by Mr. M. Chenniappan, Member, Newsletter Committee, Neervalam, Erode

The major outcomes of the workshop is to form the State level farmers organization for water management in Tamil Nadu namely ‘Tamilaga Velaan Neervala Niruvanam (TVNN)’, and publish the bilingual quarterly newsletter in Tamil and English namely ‘Neervalam’.

Interaction with Policy Makers

As part of our approach in water policy reforms in the state, TVNN and JalaSpandana had several rounds of interactive discussion with the secretaries of the government and concerned Ministers, Government of Tamil Nadu (GOTN), in which the research findings of TVNN and JalaSpandana and the resolutions made from the workshops, were shared with appropriate recommendations.

Several rounds of interactions with the secretaries and Ministers helped realizing the pro and cons of existing structure and functions of water users associations. Further, the funds allocation to water users association also sped up due to these interaction. The discussions were focused on irrigation management transfer at all levels of irrigation system, area of jurisdiction of WUAs for tanks, major, and medium irrigation systems.

The concerned ministers of GOTN like Mr. O. Pannerselvam - Honorable Minister for PWD, Mr. Ponnaian - Honorable Minister for Finance, Mr. Pandurangan - Honorable Minister for Agriculture, Mr. P.C. Ramasamy - Honorable Minister for Endowment and in charge minister for Erode, the top rank departmental officials like Mr. Palaniyappan, IAS - Secretary PWD, Mr. Deenadayalan - Engineer in Chief, PWD, Dr. Elumala - Advisor (FOT), Government of Tamil Nadu and Er. Mohanakrishnan - Advisor, Cauvery Technical Cell, Government of Tamil Nadu, Chennai appreciated the efforts of JalaSpandana and TVNN in water sector reforms.