About Us
JalaSpandana.org is a website created by JalaSpandana to promote access to its activities in the field of natural resources particularly water and rural development in South India. The website will be made accessible in English, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Farmers from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu with well experience in and like-minded approach towards participatory management of natural resources particularly water joined together and formed JalaSpandana in the month of February 2003.
Jala means Water Spandana means response, throbbing, reach, heartbeat, etc
JalaSpandana means response to water.
Vision
Worldwide the need for farmers to participate in the management and distribution of water for irrigation purposes is recognised. As the water for irrigation purposes is getting scarcer with the passage of time and increase in population the need for optimal utilisation of the resources is felt throughout the world. One of the methods identified is to make the irrigator responsible for his act through an institutional structure in which farmers participate in governance, management and finance of irrigation.
Farmers are generally excluded from the process of policy formulation, and are mainly conceived as implementers of policies designed by others. It is posited that an explicitly multi-stakeholder policy process and balanced representation of the different interest groups in that, including farmers, will enhance the quality, acceptability and pace of water sector reform.
The main objective of JalaSpandana is to promote general advocacy of participatory approaches, by initiating networks of farmers in South India States: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu in order to increase and strengthen their role in water sector policy formulation and implementation.
JalaSpandana is based on and extends initial and very positive experience with this approach, gained particularly in Karnataka through Pragathi-Farmers Society for Rural Studies and Development, Bangalore. Upscaling and strengthening of farmers� networks on water issues is necessary to increase the momentum of water sector reform.
JalaSpandana is based on and extends initial and very positive experience with this approach, gained particularly in Karnataka through Pragathi-Farmers Society for Rural Studies and Development, Bangalore. Upscaling and strengthening of farmers� networks on water issues is necessary to increase the momentum of water sector reform.