A policy dialogue on “Priorities and Possibilities of Investment for Accelerating Agricultural Growth and Reducing Poverty in Odisha” was held on 6 July in Bhubaneswar, Odisha under the auspices of the project “Village Dynamics in South Asia (VDSA). The dialogue was jointly hosted by the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP), New Delhi; the Directorate of Water Management (DWM), Bhubaneswar; and ICRISAT. Several partners of the VDSA project in East India and in other parts of the country also participated in the policy dialogue.
Dr DP Ray, Vice Chancellor, Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar was the chief guest, while Principal Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Food, Government of Odisha, Mr RL Jamuda was the guest of honor. Dr Ashwani Kumar, Director of DWM, Bhubaneswar, welcomed the participants.
Dr Cynthia Bantilan, Program Director of RP-MIP, highlighted the VDSA project activities in South Asia and its importance for understanding the dynamics of rural poverty in East India (Odisha state, in particular), the semi-arid tropics of India, Bangladesh, and South Asia in general. She shared insights from VDSA project activities in the region, and how the findings from the village level studies can provide valuable information and knowledge base for investment priorities for pro-poor agricultural development. Dr Ramesh Chand, Director of NCAP-New Delhi elaborated key issues and concerns on agricultural growth and development, and investment priorities in Odisha. He also highlighted the importance of household and village level information from VDSA surveys in planning for agricultural and rural development sectors.
The dialogue was participated in by the Senior Secretary, Government of Odisha; Head of Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack; heads of Departments of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Horticulture and Fisheries; Director of NABARD; Director of the Institute of Rural Management in Odisha; representatives from several regional agricultural organizations; and representatives of development NGOs, farmer cooperatives, and the private sector.
Senior advisory committee members of VDSA, Dr Mruthyunjaya and Dr SS Acharya also attended the dialogue. From ICRISAT, P Parthasarathy Rao, Uttam Dev, Madhusudan Bhattarai, and Anjani Kumar and other partners from VDSA-East India component (RKP Singh, Prabhakar Nanda and Mukesh Singh) also participated.
The discussions during the dialogue brought out several emerging investment priority areas and key issues critical to further investment initiatives in the region. The outputs and findings from the VDSA project are expected to be useful for state government and other regional agencies in planning for agricultural growth and development investments in the state of Odisha.