Convergence Meeting with National Gender Resource Centre in Agriculture (NGRCA), New Delhi for Addressing Issues on Women in Agriculture

A convergence meeting was organized on 24.08.2022 with National Gender Resource Centre in Agriculture, New Delhi with the objectives of mainstreaming women farmers and promoting women empowerment in agriculture and allied sector. Dr. Lipi Das, Principal Scientist and Convener of the programme welcomed all the delegates, participants and defined the sole purpose of the meeting. The Director of the institute, Dr. Anil Kumar extended a warm welcome to all the stakeholders and emphasized the core role of farm women in enhancing agricultural production. The meeting was graced by Dr. Y.R. Meena, Additional Commissioner Extension (DA & FW), NGRCA as Chief Guest and during his presidential address, he highlighted the various schemes and policies for promoting women farmer and assured support to all the stakeholders willing to promote women farmers.

The convergence meeting comprised of technical session, where in Dr. Lipi Das presented the concept note on “Development of Gender framework through the development programmes in Agriculture and allied sectors” in convergence mode and emphasized the role and strengths of ICAR-CIWA in gender mainstreaming. Additionally, Dr. Punam Tiwari, NGRCA, presented the responsibilities, functions and future strategies of NGRCA and underlined the importance of convergence for collectively assuring farm women empowerment. The technical session continued with deliberation and experience sharing by Scientists from ICAR institutes viz., NRRI, IIWM, CIFA; representatives from state line Dept. viz., Agriculture, Horticulture, Soil Conservation and Watershed Development,Veterinary and Animal Husbandry, Mission Shakti; agri-enterprise promoting agency like APICOL, financial institute like NABARD; NGOs viz.,Grameen Foundation, PRADAN, NIGAM and progressive women farmer trained by ICAR-CIWA. The technical session ended with elaborate discussion to formulate approaches to strengthen farm women’s farming and agri-entrepreneurial perspective. Emphasis was laid on skill upgradation of women farmers, formation of women FPOs, market linkages for commercial farming and agri-enterprises, documentation of success stories and case studies. It was further emphasized to develop a women empowerment index in agriculture and allied sectors to assess the effectiveness of developmental frameworks for farm women.

During the closing remarks, Dr. Dr. Y. R. Meena, Additional Commissioner Extension (DA & FW), NGRCA, extended gratitude to all stakeholders for their enthusiastic spirit in collaboratively promoting women farmers. Dr. Anil Kumar, Director-CIWA, during his closing remarks focused on collating the developmental framework of all stakeholders for women farmers’ empowerment. The meeting ended with a formal vote of thanks extended by Dr. B. Sahoo, Principal Scientist and co-convener of the programme. The meeting was successfully organized by Dr. Lipi Das, Principal Scientist and convener, Dr. B. Sahoo, Principal Scientist and co-convener, Dr. Tanuja S., Senior Scientist, Dr. Tania Seth, Scientist, Dr. Arpita Mohapatra, Scientist, Dr. Ankita Sahu, Scientist and Dr. Neetish Kumar, Scientist.