Sustainable use of natural resources and adopting a conservation approach is the need of the hour: Dr Sahu
Bhubaneswar,(Kalinga Voice) ; Green-Ag project funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF) aims to catalyze transformative changes to India’s agriculture sector for National and global environmental benefits without compromising the country’s food security and farmers’ income, was launched in Odisha today at Krushi Bhavan Auditorium. Dr. Arun Kumar Sahoo, Hon’ble Minister, Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Fisheries and ARD, Higher Education graced the occasions as Chief Guest and inaugurated the event.
Addressing the inaugural session at the state Inception Workshop Minister Dr. Sahu expressed his pleasure being Odisha as one of the targeted states among 5 selected states of the country. He has highlighted that Odisha is endowed with abundant natural resources with rich biodiversity and stressed the importance of sustainable use of natural resources and adopting a conservation approach for better environmental benefits. He expressed his confidence that project will attain its objective of catalysing sustainable transformation of the agricultural sector whereby providing economic upliftment to the people of the targeted area with awareness on conservation of IUCN endangered species and critically vulnerable flora and fauna.
The Minister indicated that the project will be implemented in identified priority villages of Similipal Landscape of Mayurbhanj District of Odisha for global environmental benefits and livelihood enhancement of targeted communities. Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment and Director of Soil Conservation and Watershed Development also addressed the programme.
UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative Tomio Shichiri and Konda Reddy highlighted the overview of the project in Odisha context and expressed their happiness for the cooperation received from the Government of Odisha.
Representatives of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation of Odisha (FAO) and the representative from National level attended the event and presented about the strategic objectives of the programme, different components and implementation structures of the project.
Officials from various departments i.e. Member of the State Steering Committee (SSC), Representative from FAO/NPMU, Officers from Soil Conservation and Watershed Development and IMAGE, various senior officials, Nodal Officers of different related line departments, members of SPMU and GLIU, representative of print and electronic media have attended the inaugural ceremony.
Around 80 numbers of participants took part in the event. The three-day workshop comprised of inaugural session followed by inception workshop (training programmes). Various project concepts and implementation approaches were discussed in details in the inception workshop involving nodal officers from various relevant departments.
The Nodal directorate of Soil Conservation and Watershed Development, IMAGE Bhubaneswar and State Project Management Unit team of Green Ag Project coordinated the event for its all-round success.
