Livelihood schemes for Odisha’s marginal farmers

First India Bureau

Bhubaneswar: The Fisheries & Animal Resource Development (FARD) Department, Odisha will soon roll out major livestock-based livelihood schemes focusing on small ruminants like Goat/Sheep for small and marginal farmers in the state.

The FARD recently invited leading NGOs for an exploratory meeting to share their expertise, experience in livestock- based value chains, especially small ruminants.

The meeting was chaired by Animal Husbandry Department

Commissioner-cumSecretary Suresh Kumar Vashishth and Director Dr Yeddula Vijayalong.

A team from Heifer India —an international NGO engaged in Agriculture, Food Security, Gender, Social Development sectors- attended this meeting. The team presented Heifer’s inno- vative community development model supporting small and marginal farmers especially fo- cusing on women households. In addition, the team sensitized the government officials on

Value Based Holistic Community Development (VBHCD), Cornerstones, goat value chain model and Community Agro Vet Entrepreneurs.

In the meeting, two other agencies (Goat Trust and BAIF) also presented their work on goat/sheep value chains.

Acknowledging Heifer’s work, Animal Husbandry Commissionercum-Secretary Vashishth was keen to learn more about the Heifer POG community en- gagement approach. He advised the Heifer team to provide consulting support to the Animal Husbandry department on community accepted models on goat value chain in Mayurbhanj and Kendujhar districts and the same can be replicated in other districts. Meanwhile, Heifer’s Odisha programme director Prabaharan Rajarathinam will be guest speaker in ‘Krushi Odisha-2023’ being held from February 16.

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