Awareness Programme on “Nutri-Sensitive Agriculture” organized

8^th July, 2022, Bhubaneswar

An Awareness Programme on “Nutri-Sensitive Agriculture” was organized by the ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar, Odisha today. The programme was aimed at sensitizing the stakeholders on the importance of nutritional interventions in improving the family food and nutritional security.

The Chief Guest, Smt. Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, National Commission for Women, New Delhi apprised the participants about the Government of India’s dedication for the cause of well-being of women and taking timely measures to formulate & implement both women inclusive and women exclusive policies and programmes to improve their livelihood, health, nutrition and social status. She also urged the Institute to take initiatives in packaging, shelf-life improvement, marketing of locally prepared foods and battery operated women-friendly tools for the Entrepreneurship development among the farm women which will lead to income generation, thereby, improving their decision making abilities.

The Guest of Honor, Dr. Minati Behera, Chairperson, State Commission for Women, Bhubaneswar, Odisha emphasized on suitable interventions for rural women by the different stakeholders in a coordinated manner to improve their health, nutrition and livelihood. The need for mapping their risk, vulnerability and preparedness to ensure that agriculture production could harness their nutritional outcomes as also stressed by her.

The Guest of Honour Smt. Daisy Thakur, Chairperson, State Commission for Women, Himachal Pradesh urged the women for taking care of their own health & nutrition and avail the facilities of the Women Commission in getting justice whenever needed.

Earlier, delivering the welcome address, Dr. Anil Kumar, Director, ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar highlighted the seven priority areas identified in the National Policy for Women by NCW covering the areas of Health including food security & nutrition, education, economy, decision making, environment and climate change etc., which largely affects the health, nutrition and well-being of farm women. The development and refinement of more women-friendly technologies to ease the drudgery of farm women in managing home and farm was emphasized by him.

About 300 farm women participants of 13 Villages from the different Districts of Odisha including Staff Members of ICAR-CIWA participated in the programme.

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