President of SBI Foundation, Jagannath Sahoo flagged off “Bhagirath” watershed development initiative in Siyasi village, Gyaraspur Tehsil. The initiative is being implemented in the District as part of SBI Foundation’s CSR activities, in partnership with Action for Social Advancement (ASA), a non-profit organization based in Bhopal.
The initiative is aimed towards bringing prosperity in the lives of the farmers in the locality by supporting them in watershed development for agricultural activities. A dedicated excavator, aptly named as ‘Bhagirath’ (Meaning the one who brought Ganga to earth), has been donated for the purpose. ‘Bhagirath’ will be moving from village to village reaching out the lands of the farmers to create farm ponds, farm bunding etc.
As per the plan, the “Bhagirath” is estimated to reach over thousand farmers in the district over the next three years. Sahoo shared “Agriculture is the primary occupation in the District and with majority of the small and marginal farmers depending on rain-fed agriculture, waters scarcity is a critical issue in the area.
Through ‘Bhagirath’ initiative, SBI Foundation envisions to address this issue by improving watershed activities and we believe this will be a significant step towards improving access to water for agricultural activities. This will enable farmers taking up multiple crops, and adopt better cropping patterns, thereby increasing the farmers’ income and also ensuring water conservation in the long run.”
Lokesh Chandra, Deputy General Manager, of the Bank’s Administrative Office at Bhopal expressed that Bhagirath is pioneering effort for farmers’ welfare in Vidisha district and SBI branches in the locality will also be extending support to the farmers through credit linkage and other financial assistance for their socio-economic development.
Bapuji Charan Swain, Regional Manager of Vidisha, shared that the Bank has been reaching out the remote villages by taking numerous financial inclusion initiatives and providing customer services and ensuring credit delivery efficiently through branches and customer service points for ensuring easy access to financial services.
Ashis Mondal, Trustee of Action for Social Advancement (ASA) shared, “As the name suggests, “Bhagirath” is aimed at improving water availability for farmers to agricultural activities. The farmers will be paying only for the diesel for the excavator work in their land, you can call it ‘diesel bharo taalab khodo’. This way farmers will be getting the services at nominal costs, enabling them to go for rainwater harvesting.
The agrarian community will also be trained for better water and crop management practices.” During the visit, Scholarships were also awarded to talented students and youth from the locality and stitching machines were provided to women from the villages. SBI Foundation has also adopted five villages in Vidisha taluk under its flagship CSR program, “SBI Gram Seva”, and has been executing integrated development activities in the villages for over two years, with impactful interventions in key areas like education, women empowerment and livelihoods.
