Bhubaneswar : A Memorandum of Agreement is signed today between the Soil Conservation and Watershed Development Directorate and ICRAF in presence of Minister,
Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Sri Pradeep Maharathy for implementation of the
project on “Enabling small holders in Odisha to produce and consume more nutritious
food through Agro Forestry Systems”.
The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) also known as the
World Agroforestry Centre, a leading International Development Institution will
implement this project. The project is intended to be implemented in 5000 hectares in Nuapada and Bolangir districts covering 180 villages in 30 Gram Panchayats with the objective to arrest migration of labour while developing agro forestry modules for the State. Project is expected to deal with 5000 households comprising of a total of estimated 30000 men, women and children. The project will be implemented over the three years with the project cost of Rs.19.18 crores.
The overall objective of the project is to enable small holders to produce diverse
and nutritious food, proposed project will focus on following specific objectives:
Create awareness about benefits of consuming diversified nutritious farm produce,
including, fruits, vegetables, and other tree based produce, such as flowers, pods, leaves,
etc., Introduce and accelerate adoption of suitable agroforestry systems to enhance
availability of nutritive food, Generate employment and income to support the efforts of Odisha Government to reduce in-country migration Assess the impact of introduced interventions on availability of nutritive food to support better decision making for scaling up and scaling out, Build capacity of all stakeholders and strengthen existing/ create structures to sustain the activities and impact of the project.
MoA was signed by Dr. Javed Rizvi, Regional Director, South Asia, Programme,
ICRAF, New Delhi and Sujata Kartikeyan, Commissioner & Director, Soil Conservation
and Watershed Development Directorate. Agriculture Production Commissioner Sri
Gagan Kumar Dhal, Principal Secretary, Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Sri
Sourav Garg along with senior officers were present on the occasion.
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