Bhubaneswar: The stocktaking workshop was organized today at Krushi Bhawan, under the chairpersonship of Dr Arabinda Kumar Padhee, Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmer’s Empowerment, Government of Odisha to review the Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded FAO projects being implemented in Odisha.
Dr. Padhee urged the officers to strengthen inter-departmental collaboration for effective implementation and achievement of project objectives.
The current implementation status of the Green-Ag Project and the Sustainable Rice and Wheat Systems projects was presented in the workshop. Additionally, strategies for improving the project delivery to achieve agreed project outputs were fully discussed. The workshop was attended by Director Agriculture & FP, Horticulture, Soil Conservation and WD, Chief Conservator of Forest, Wild life and Scheme Officers of relevant line Departments of Government of Odisha. The FAO team was led by the FAO Representative, India Mr Takayuki Hagiwara. The Green-Ag (GEF-6) project is implemented in 1650 villages of Similipal Biosphere of Mayurbhanj district and FOLUR project (GEF-7) will be implemented in Ganjam and Kalahandi district ( 3 blocks in each district).
Subham Saxena, Director, Soil Conservation & WD welcome the participants.
Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture & FE provided the opening remarks. This was followed by presentations and discussion by the FAO Team and the State Project Management Unit (SPMU) Odisha. The presentations were followed by discussion on strategies to improve project implementation.