Monitoring of FOs Advance Training by JICA at Bahawalnagar

The Chief Advisor of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Strengthening Irrigated Agriculture through Participatory Irrigation Management in Punjab Project (SIAP) Mr. Uchiuimi Susumu held a field visit at Bahawalnagar to observe the Advance Training for management committees’ members of newly established FOs.

The Advance Trainings are a part of PIDA’s training and capacity building program for FOs at their IMT unit level. The basic purpose of these trainings is to educate the participants about the need of institutional reforms, their role and duties in participatory irrigation management model and the different functions of FOs in terms of accounting, technical, revenue and the general management of FOs including operational work of distributaries. The Advance Training program has been started from April 2011 and will remain continued as per approved schedule in which training sessions are being conducted on convenient places for the participants for two days.

The JICA representative in his findings has reported that the coordination among training staff was very good and the trainers showed respect towards participants which was very much impressive. The questions of the participants were answered very effectively and the trainers were well prepared for their lectures.

The attitude of participants during the both days was highly appreciable as 80 percent participants attended the training even in the wheat harvest season. Almost, each participant put his share by commenting, questioning and confirming about different issues. They were highly enthusiastic to run the participatory irrigation system and eager to learn everything which could be helpful for running their FOs. The JICA representative expressed his satisfaction on the overall management of training in term of facilities, contents and the training methodology. He suggested that the training material should be provided to all the participants besides the FO Presidents.