Odisha Agriculture Dept Inks MoA with ISB to Set up Climate Resilience Support Cell

Bhubaneswar: The Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment (DAFE), Government of Odisha on Monday signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Indian School of Business (ISB) to establish a climate resilience support cell that will facilitate building of sustainable and climate resilient agriculture pathways.

The MoA, which was signed the presence of Minister for Agriculture& Farmers’ Empowerment, Odisha, RanendraPratap Swain, Principal Secretary, DAFE, Govt. of Odisha, Dr.Arabinda K. Padhee, Director Agriculture & Food Production-cum-Ex-Officio Additional Secretary to Govt. of Odisha, Prem Chandra Chaudhary, and the Executive Director, ISB-BIPP Hyderabad, Prof. Ashwini Chhatre, aims at improving nutrition outcomes through strengthening agriculture-nutrition convergence with a focus on fruits & vegetables and animal-source foods.

As per the MoA, Indian School of Business will support DAFE for improving nutrition outcomes amongst low-income households from increased availability, accessibility, and affordability of nutrient-dense foods, i.e., fruits and vegetables and animal-source foods.

ISB will provide the responsive research and technical support for using agriculture-nutrition convergence, policy, markets, and technology for alleviating nutrition outcomes.

In addition, DAFE& ISB will jointly establish a climate resilience support cell. ISB will undertake research for identifying and understanding factors that affect resilience of crops, farmers, and rural livelihoods in Odisha towards climate variability. ISB will support DAFE in identifying policy innovations and pathways for a climate-resilient agriculture roadmap for Odisha.

ISB’s Bharti Institute of Public Policy will also undertake research to produce a comprehensive report and case study on the Odisha Millets Mission.

DAFE will anchor this collaboration and will enable coordination of policies and programmes amongst different and related government stakeholders and departments to achieve the objectives of improving the nutrition status of the State.

It is expected that this collaboration will contribute to identifying climate resilient agriculture pathways and will lead to building long lasting impact pathways for improving nutrition. DAFE& ISB will work together towards these objectives, according to a press note issued by the DAFE.