WADI (Wasteland Development in India)

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) aims to provide employment to members of the tribal community and reduce the migration of tribals from their native places under its comprehensive WADI project.

What is the WADI (Wasteland Development in India) project?

• NABARD’s WADI is a flagship program which aims for the livelihood creation for various tribal families.
• It aims to provide year-round employment opportunities which will aim to reduce migration of tribals from their native places to places where better economic opportunities are present.
• The project also aims to increase the entrepreneurial skills of tribal women through nursery management, vermicompost, backyard poultry, and kitchen gardening.
• The WADI project was initiated in eight villages and will cover around 200 acres of land.
• Every WADI project has a spread of over 1 acre of land.
• It aims to plant over 45 Mango saplings, some 20 saplings of Guava and nearly 140 sapling of Border plants like the Sal, Sesame and Sagwan.
• The WADI model is an agri-horticulture based sustainable agriculture model which aims to make farming profitable even on smaller farms.

Tribal Development Fund (TDF)

For tribal welfare and cultural protection, NABARD had established a dedicated Tribal Development Fund (TDF) with initial corpus of Rs 50 crore. The money came from the profits of NABARD in the year 2003?04.

In the state of Jharkhand, which hosts a large tribal population, all 24 districts have been covered under Tribal Development Fund, where WADI (orchard) is a core component for impacting the economic development of the tribal areas.