Umbrella Programme on Natural Resources Management

The Government of India and Government of Germany have agreed to streamline and restructure bilateral collaboration in the field of natural resource management in the course of Indo-German negotiations on development cooperation during December 2005. Accordingly, a decision was taken to set up a joint Umbrella Programme on Natural Resource Management (UPNRM) to facilitate upscaling of best practices and models from both Technical Cooperation (TC) and Financial Cooperation (FC) projects to the national level. The German Development Cooperation (GDC) and NABARD would be the strategic partners in the programme in the light of long standing development cooperation with KfW and GTZ on programmes of Natural Resource Management and rural finance, more particularly, the fruitful cooperation between NABARD and KfW in the watershed and Adivasi Development programmes and the SHG-Bank linkage programme supported by GTZ.

The UPNRM shall integrate NABARD’s existing and future Indo-German NRM efforts into one streamlined approach of participatory NRM related interventions. The programme objective is to contribute to mainstreaming of holistic, participatory and financially sustainable livelihood solutions into public NRM policies and financial instruments for improving the livelihoods of the rural poor based on the sustainable natural resource use and management. NABARD’s Natural Resource Management Policy strives to reinforce its commitment to foster agriculture development and rural prosperity on a sustainable basis.

UPNRM proposes a shift from project based approach to a growing emphasis on achieving strategic impact on development policies based on excellently designed and implemented model projects through a flexible programming mechanism on agreed policies and criteria of the strategic partners.

The proposed UPNRM shall support NABARD in emerging as a strategic national player and a leader in NRM sector in the country. Moreover, the programme shall support poverty reduction and environmental sustainability in a country with strategic importance to reach millennium goals. The projects supported under UPNRM will have to pass through a scrutiny at Guiding Principles level of NABARD’s Umbrella Programme on Natural Resource Management. These principles entail that the projects have to be pro-poor designed on integrated & need based approach, should ensure sustainability, involve community participation and be based on sound and transparent Governance.

The programme envisages a gradual shift from grant based to loan based NRM projects and funding will be through a corpus comprising Financial Cooperation from KfW as well as fund mobilised by NABARD from various sources. The interest rate applicable for projects under UPNRM will depend on the nature of project, channel partners and the target groups.

The UPNRM will include NRM activities under:

a) Core / priority areas : comprising

• Soil and water conservation (including watershed programmes, dryland farming systems)
• Plantation and horticulture (tree based farming, Bamboo based farming, wadi development, organic farming, energy plantations)
• Forestry activities (rehabilitation and management / Community Forest management, biodiversity conservation)
• Farming systems management (including livestock and aquaculture resources)
• Climate change adaptation / Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

b) Supplementary / support areas : including forward and backward linkages and livelihood generating activities:

• Processing, storage, marketing,
• Critical rural infrastructure (including rural roads, minor irrigation, drinking water)
• Renewable energy (micro/mini-hydel, biomass based power generation, biofuels, wind-power, solar power)
• Livelihood generating activities (dairy, poultry, fisheries, etc)
• Micro-finance
• any other activity which supports the efficient implementation of the projects covering the core areas and thereby intensifying their impact.

c) Information & Knowledge Management (IKM) and Capacity Building : Necessary enablers such as capacity building, project preparation, planning, infrastructure, Information & Knowledge Management systems, etc. would be covered under the NRM sector.

The channel partners for UPNRM will include state governments, NGOs, mFIs, Corporates, and Banks.

A feasibility study conducted during October- December 2006 has concluded that a loan based UPNRM has sufficient potential and there is sufficient demand for NRM loans especially from NGOs, Corporates, mFIs and certain state governments. Though the bilateral negotiations for UPNRM are still underway, NABARD has decided to launch the pilot phase (Phase-I) of UPNRM and an NRM business unit has been set up within NABARD for design and implementation of Phase I of the programme with limited start up funds. Under Phase-I, financial assistance in the form of loan with a small grant component for eligible projects conforming to the Guiding Principles would be considered.

NABARD invites expression of interest from state governments, NGOs, mFIs, Corporates, Banks to take up NRM projects under UPNRM Phase-I .

  How to Approach for Project Funding

All the interested promoters for Natural Resource Management projects may approach NABARD for funding under the programme. The project proposals seeking funding for Natural Resource Management projects may be submitted to NABARD. The correspondence may be addressed to:

The contact persons for UPNRM at NABARD are:
A) Dr V Tagat, Chief General Manager - Tel: (022) 26530083, 26539625
B) S N A Jinnah, General Manager- (022)26530007.