The Water Technology Centre of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and ITC Mission Sunehra Kal have inked a memorandum of understanding to promote water-efficient technologies in Upper Bhavani region.

A press release from the university said the centre would identify best technologies to improve water use efficiency in major crops that had a high water intake. The Centre would demonstrate the technologies on field, train farmers' groups and provide scientific evidence of water saving and productivity improvement.

ITC would, in turn, spread the technologies in the region by taking the help of the Agriculture Department, farmers' groups, village panchayats and other local bodies.

The release said the signing parties chose the Upper Bhavani region because it had witnessed drought and falling ground water table due to over-exploitation.

The release also said that ITC had partnered with WWF India for water balance study and COODU, an NGO, for field implementation.

So far, ITC had helped renovate 156 percolation tanks, and created 179 farm ponds in the region. It had also trained over 3,000 farmers on water-efficient technologies like drip irrigation, ring bunds and mulching and helped farmers adopt the technologies to raise coconut and banana crop on 3,300 acres.