A Workshop on "Water management interventions for bridging the yield gap of major crops of India" was organized by ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management (IIWM), Bhubaneswar on 28th December 2019 at ICAR-IIWM, Bhubaneswar. Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Hon'ble Secretary, DARE & Director General, ICAR graced this occasion as Chief Guest and inaugurated the Workshop and chaired the technical session. The overview of international collaborative project of ICAR and University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA entitled "Global yield gap and water productivity atlas (GYGA)" and water management interventions to bridge the yield gap of rice, wheat, maize, sorghum and pearlmillet was presented by Dr. P.S. Brahmanand, Principal Scientist & PI. ICAR-IIWM, Bhubaneswar and ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research, Modipuram are Indian collaborators of this project. While addressing the gathering, Dr. Mohapatra appreciated the efforts of the Institute in addressing the issue of yield gap of major crops of India at national scale and suggested further refinement of methodology for assessment of potential yield of crops and comparison with crop cutting data at specific locations of climatic buffer zones of India for enhancing the accuracy. He also emphasized the need for upscaling the adoption of proven water management interventions such as ICAR-flexi rubber checkdams for watersheds, two stage rainwater harvesting technique, climate resilient water management interventions, tank cum well system and real time automated drip fertigation system for reducing the yield gaps of major crops. He also emphasized on development of mapping of water harvesting structures of different sizes created under different government schemes including PMKSY/MGNREGS and developing plan for enhancing their impact in agricultural sector and to suggest water management intervention supported crop diversification plan for Government of Odisha. Later, the publications of ICAR-IIWM on ICAR-IIWM News, Technical bulletin of NICRA project, Hindi Magazine “Krishi Jal” and Training Manual of Model Training Course were released by the Chief Guest.

Earlier, Dr. S.K. Ambast, Director, ICAR-IIWM welcomed the Chief Guest cum Chairman and delegates. About 40 participants including delegates from ICAR-CIFA, ICAR-CIWA, ICAR-IIHR-CHES and ICAR-CTCRI participated in the Workshop.