National Webinar on “Evolving livelihoods for Women in post-harvest Fisheries: Approaches, Policies and Institutional support” organized

The ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar, Odisha organized a National Webinar on “Evolving livelihoods for Women in post-harvest Fisheries: Approaches, Policies and Institutional support” today.

The webinar was aimed at apprising the participants about the status and scope for Women in fisheries, emphasizing the importance of building self-reliance among women in fisheries through entrepreneurial ventures and creating awareness on the policies, programmes and recommendations for promoting entrepreneurship among women.

In his inaugural address, Dr. R.C. Agrawal, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Education), ICAR complimented the Institute’s efforts in organizing the important Webinar. He also stressed on the importance of completeness of technology in terms of its widespread adoption and up-scaling. Dr. Agrawal highlighted the Government of India’s New Educational Policy that promotes entrepreneurship.

The Guest of Honor, Dr. P.S. Pandey, ADG (EP&HS), ICAR highlighted the importance of fisheries in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. He outlined the plethora of government programmes and initiatives for empowering women in fisheries.

In his address, Dr. S.K. Srivastava, Director, ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar, Odisha briefed about the importance of women in fisheries and the need of mainstreaming them through the various policies and programmes.

In his keynote address on “Impact of COVID 19 Pandemic on the Economies and Livelihoods Dependent on Fisheries”, Dr. C.N. Ravishankar, Director, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Kochi, Kerala apprised the participants about the impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on the lives of fishers and, especially, the fisherwomen. He also highlighted the ICAR-CIFT’s technologies. Dr. Ravishankar underlined about the ways the technologies should be utilized for developing women entrepreneurship.

The Webinar registered a total participation by over 70 participants.

(Source: ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar, Odisha)