ABOUT THE INSTITUTE

In Orissa, Water And Land Management Institute (WALMI) was established in the year 1984 and it functioned as an autonomous Institute in 1986 to impart advanced training in the areas of water and land management with a view to enhancing agricultural production. Currently, there are eight Faculty Members in various disciplines, viz. Civil Engineering with specialization in Irrigation Engineering, Agricultural Engineering and Agriculture with specialization in Agronomy and Soil & Water Conservation and Sociology as against the sanctioned strength of fourteen Faculty Members in the Institute. Besides, there are six Assistant Research Officers in the disciplines relating to Irrigation Engineering and Agriculture to undertake action research. The institute is well equipped with requisite infrastructure, which includes 4 class rooms (2 lecture halls each with a capacity to accommodate 40 trainees and other 2 lecture halls for 80 farmers each), a conference hall for 32 participants, an Auditorium to accommodate 250 persons and a library with a stock of more than 3000 Textbooks, 11 Journals, 20 Periodicals and 10 Newsletters, an indoor Hydraulic Laboratory, Soil Testing Laboratory, Computer Lab and Hostels to accommodate about 200 trainees besides transport and other facilities. The Institute functions under the administrative control of its Governing Council with the Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Government, Department of Water Resources as its President and Director WALMI as its Member Secretary. The Governing Council comprises senior level officers from the Departments of Water Resources, Finance, Agriculture, OUAT, CADA, WTCER, XIMB and CRRI. The institute is located at Pratapnagari, about 7 km to the South of Cuttack and 17 km North of Bhubaneswar on National Highway 5.

OBJECTIVES

1. To provide training of multidisciplinary nature to the newly recruited and in-service Engineers and other officers on Irrigation Engineering and Agriculture.
2. To undertake action, adoptive and applied research pertaining to irrigation project commands on land, water and crop management including on-station field experiments on water management in different crops.
3. To undertake activities which will promote optimization of water use and land resources.
4. To study and experiment with organizational and procedural changes for effective management of irrigated agriculture.
5. To provide consultancy services, publish literature, hold seminars and workshops etc. and organize farmers’ training programmes, especially, the capacity building of Pani Panchayats and other Farmers’ Organizations of Orissa.