Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Joins Hands with Watershed Organisation Trust for Sustainable Agriculture

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCB), joined hands with Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), Sanjeevani Institute of Empowerment and Develoment (SIED) and local community to launch Integrated Watershed Management Project in Sinnar Taluka, Nasik District of Maharashtra.  The project is being implemented across 03 villages – Khaprale, Chandrapur, Jamgaon, covering a geographical area of 1624 hectares.

The objective of the project is to enhance the agricultural productivity through watershed treatments, irrigation development and weather-specific advisories.  The project aims to address issues arising from water scarcity for agriculture, high soil erosion, land degradation, lack of knowledge on agricultural production technology and migration, through sustainable improvement in agricultural production techniques and optimum utilization of natural resources.  The organised local village communities would be driving their own development.

Interacting with the community at Jamgaon, Shukla Wassan, Executive Director, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd., said, “Water is a social and economic catalyst and we are delighted to see the progress made in these three villages. The project is designed to improve the agriculture and livelihood of a large number of families spread across 3 villages of the Sinnar block. The expertise of our implementation partners, WOTR and SIED, will help bring about a change in the social and economic state of the villages resulting into better quality of life.”

Key components of the project are:

-Comprehensive soil and water conservation measures
-Strengthening irrigation potential by improving existing water resources as well as increasing cropping intensity
-Forming and strengthening people’s institutions to sustainably promote, support and manage land, water and agriculture development

Till date, a total of  46041 meter  farm bunds have been constructed on 84 ha (17229 m ) in Khaprale village, 141 ha (26055 m) in Chandrapur village and 18 ha (2736 m) in Jamgaon. In both these villages, 63 loose boulder structures and 16 Gabion structures  have been completed.  Accordingly, plantation of trees has been completed in both villages.

Repair work of one percolation tanks has been carried out in Khaprale and Chandrapur villages resulting in an increase in their water storage capacity. This has resulted into availability of water for a prolonged period.

An Automated Weather Station (AWS) has been installed at Chandrapur, equidistant from Khaprale and Jamgaon villages.  The data available on wind speed, direction, humidity, rainfall and temperature is processed with assistance from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to develop crop advisories which are sent to farmers through mobile SMS.

Dana J. Bolden, Group Director – Public Affairs and Communications, Bottling Investment Group, The Coca-Cola Company, said, “This is my first visit to any of the sustainable agriculture project in India and it is simply amazing to see the scale, planning and nature of intervention.”

Bolden further added, “Through this partnership with WOTR, SIED and community, our aim is to ignite the spark of hope and confidence in these drought- affected villages. We will do this by organising them to implement soil and water conservation works across the catchments they live in so that every drop of rain water that falls is harvested. Empowering women is an important component of the project”.

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The CSR Journal Team