4th Meeting of the State Steering Committee (SSC), Green-Ag project, Odisha

The fourth meeting of the State Steering Committee (SSC), Green-Ag Project, Odisha was held under the Chairpersonship of Shri Pradeep Kumar Jena, IAS, Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha (GoO) on April 29, 2023, at Lokaseva Bhawan, Bhubaneswar. The Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment (DA&FE), GoO, welcomed the participants, including members of the SSC-Odisha, representative from the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO), the Project Director, Odisha and the State Project Management Unit (SPMU)- Green-Ag project, Odisha. The Project Director, Green-Ag Project, Odisha presented the action taken report of the 3rd meeting of SSC and the project progress. The documents that require SSC’s approval were laid before the house for deliberations and necessary actions, including the minutes of the 3rd meeting of SSC, Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWPB) for 2023 - 24, procurement plan (2023-24), study and state policy dialogues topics and their commissioning, and post facto approval for filling the vacant positions in project. The Project Director also shared the challenges of the team for project implementation.

Initiating the discussions, Dr. Konda Reddy Chavva, AFAOR/OIC, FAO Representative in India appraised the committee about the Green-Ag project, more specifically its importance for Similipal Landscape. After the deliberations, the SSC Chair approved the documents, namely, the minutes of the 3rd meeting of SSC and its action taken report, AWPB for 2023-24, procurement plan, topics for study and state policy dialogues and the other laid documents.

While discussing on issues of ecology and agriculture as one of the initiatives under the project, the Chair advised the project team to take necessary steps to reduce the use of chemical fertilizer and enhance conservation of local land races in the project’s high priority villages of the Similipal Biosphere for agricultural sustainability and environmental benefits. It was further advised to take necessary steps for increasing soil organic carbon content in the farmers’ field in the project villages.

As the concluding remarks of the meeting, Chairperson, Shri Pradeep Kumar Jena, advised all the relevant line departments to give more focus on convergence of their programs with the Green-Ag project for realizing better impact in the project villages.