10,000 more farmers in Odisha to benefit from ICRISAT-led project

Over 10,000 farmers in Odisha will benefit from agricultural interventions led by ICRISAT in partnership with the Government of Odisha by March 2023.

In the first two years of the Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM)-ICRISAT project over 18,000 farmers benefitted from soil health management, 8,900 farmers realized enhanced economic yield with the adoption of best-bet crop management practices, 7,000 farmers recycled organic matter and over 2,500 households were trained on coconut cultivation.

Ahead of the next phase, several interventions were discussed during a three-day project workshop (August 8-10) held at the headquarters in Hyderabad. The workshop was conducted to foster cross-learnings from the best practices in different OLM project clusters.

“The workshop is an opportunity for all the stakeholders to share experiences and work closely with the Odisha Government on various interventions,” said Dr Arvind Kumar, Deputy Director General – Research, ICRISAT. ​

Dr Sreenath Dixit, Head, ICRISAT Development Center and principle investigator for the OLM-ICRISAT project welcomed the participants and highlighted the objectives of the workshop.

The Mission Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ms Mansi Nimbhal inaugurated the workshop along with Additional CEOs Mr Badal Kumar Mohanty and Mr Ambika Prasad Das. A total of 55 members including Chief Development Officers from six project districts, project managers, field staff from Odisha, and researchers from ICRISAT attended the workshop.

The OLM is spearheaded by the department of Mission Shakti, the Government of Odisha, to implement various poverty reduction programs in the state by promoting diversified and gainful self-employment to the rural poor.

A project led by ICRISAT is helping smallholder and marginal farmers in Odisha to restore and improve livelihoods in six districts – Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Gajapati, Khorda and Puri.

In the ensuing phase, the stakeholders discussed various interventions such as establishing honeybee clusters, scaling up mushroom production, establishing a nursery, a secondary processing unit for millets, an aerobic composting rural enterprise, and developing a coconut-based processing unit.

“We should use ICRISAT expertise to have more integrated farm clusters. Taking lead from Haryana, Odisha should also invest extensively in fodder to enhance livelihoods. We can also scale up the value chain of solar dryers," said Ms Nimbhal.

A booklet of success stories titled ‘Bringing Smiles Through Science-led Interventions’ and a video on “Project interventions and outcomes” was also released by the CEO OLM during the workshop.

ICRISAT scientists Dr Shalander Kumar, Dr Ashok Kumar Are and Dr ML Jat presented an overview of their respective programs.

The workshop participants were guided on a tour of the ICRISAT campus and introduced to various facilities such as the genebank, the soil laboratory, genomics department, watershed, compost unit and the Agribusiness and Innovation Platform.

Banner image: From left to right: Dr Sreenath Dixit, Dr ML Jat, Ms Mansi Nimbhal, Dr Arvind Kumar and Dr Gajanan Sawargaonkar while launching the booklet of success stories.