Orissa Foundation

Climate change is very widely debated in all national and international forums, media and country elections. But it still lacks in serious thoughts and action orientation at ground level. Many schemes and programs are designed to benefit the population (populist schemes) and ensure electoral gains while these schemes have a lot of detrimental consequences on climate change; we can say that these schemes would hardly pass in Climate Change Check (CCC). In debates across various country parliaments, climate change issues are not of much attention. The observation, say in Indian Parliament, reveals that only 0.3 per cent of questions raised during a 10-year period (1999-2019) are on climate-related matters. Party manifestos are filled with improving governance and alleviating societal poverty, but neither the administration in ruling nor the adversaries have built any kind of electoral framework around targeted action against climate change impacts. India, presently under the dynamic leadership of its Hon’ble Prime Minister has made ambitious decarbonization commitments, and undertaken multiple initiatives on renewable energy, electric mobility, and emission reduction (India is among the world's most vulnerable country to climate change). As per verified reports, steadfastly rising temperatures, staggered rainfall patterns, receding groundwater levels, shrinking glaciers, cyclones and alarming rise in sea-levels could cost India 4.5 per cent of its GDP by 2030. Air quality is not yet a central discussion in the campaign, given that most of Indian cities rank among the world’s most polluted cities? Water security is much discussed but lack in actionable terms when we’re grappling with a severe water crisis? What is its impact on food productivity and food prices?   We at Orissa Foundation undertake village and grassroots level initiatives with support of state govt and other to promote climate-smart sustainable rice fallow farming, intensification of low water duty climate smart pulse crops, and exploring options for “Climate Finance” to emphasize on tangible results and added financial benefit to the farmers.   The current climate finance structures are both inadequate and too narrow in scope, focusing far too much on large investments in wind and solar at one end and grant and incubation support at the other. We urge multilateral agencies to broad base the narrative of such initiatives and give opportunities to field implementing organizations like us to demonstrate a real difference and upscale for a positive change.   #ClimateFinance #ClimateSmartSustainableFarming #OrissaFoundation

Some excerpts from local IEC and press releases highlighting technical handholding and support to the farmers provided by Orissa Foundation under RFM #OrissaFoundation #RiceFallowManagement

Small holder farmers benefited in large numbers with provision of seed and other critical inputs under Rice Fallow Management Program of Agri Dept, Govt of Odisha. Smallholder farmers and women headed farm households often do not have access to quality seed and varieties they prefer – resulting in no cropping or low productivity; ultimately leading to food insecurity and low incomes. Under the RFM programme of Agri Dept, Govt of Odisha, we work in tandem with farmers and stakeholders to provide quality/certified seed of pulses and oilseeds and relevant inputs as per government-approved norms. a) Block level orientation meetings with respective department officials were undertaken, following which the BAO offices assisted in panchayat selection and village level meeting, patch selection (which was done in villages with the help of our Field Animators, VAWs and Krushak Sathis/PRI members) b) Out of 44,200 hectares in 5 districts, we aim to make a positive impact on the lives of over 70,000 farmers, which include 80% male, over 20% women and 0.01% transgenders #OrissaFoundation #RiceFallowManagement #SeedSystem #ClimateResilientAgriculture

Selection of suitable patches for intensification of pulses/oilseeds in Rice Fallows under Comprehensive Rice Fallow Management Program of Agri Dept of Govt of Odisha - involved a Farmer, Dept and Various takeholder Participatory Processes to select right patches. The process involved (1) planning and cooordination with NFSM Cell of Director of Agri & Food Production at state level, (2) with the Chief District Agriculture Officers (CDAOs), Block Agriculture Officers (BAOs), Assistant Agri Ofiicers (AAOs), Agri Overseers, VAWs, PRI members (Sarpanch/ Samiti members/ ZP members), and local representatives of MLAs at District and Block level and (3) repeated consultation with farmers in villages. This is to ensure maximum possible consultation and targetting of suitable villages and patches to help in timely positioning of seed and inputs as per crop cafeteria cost under CRFMP. SELCO FoundationSiba MahapatraKuldeep TripathiSatya MishraKenichi YokoyamaNigamananda Swain, Ph.D.Partha Sarathy Adhya

Under RFM, the crops undertaken in Sundargarh are Bengal gram, Lentil, Mustard, Green gram, and Black gram; while in Jajpur, Cuttack, Khordha and Puri, Green gram and Black gram are being promoted. We undertake detailed participatory planning activities at field level and provide technical backstopping and support to field functionaries and farmers on patch selection, and provisioning of inputs like seed of suitable varieties and other critical inputs to encourage farmers to take up one more crop of pulse or oilseed in these lands after the harvest of rice #OrissaFoundation #RiceFallowManagement

The Directorate of Agriculture and Food Production, Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Government of Odisha under its flagship programme titled “Comprehensive Project on Rice Fallow Management (RFM)” aims to bring 4,00,000 hectares of rice fallow areas under pulses/oilseeds during Rabi 2023-24. The objective is to have more of nutritive pulses in the food basket of farmers, to increase pulses production and consumption in the state, increase financial sustainability of farming families, replenish to soil biomass and soil nitrogen. Orissa Foundation as Technology and Implementation partner with Krishi Vikas Sahakari Samiti Ltd is executing the Rice fallow Management Project across 44,200 hectares in 49 blocks of 5 districts of Odisha #OrissaFoundation #RiceFallowManagement

Seeds are the most critical input in agriculture, as they determine the yield potential and quality of crops. However, many farmers in India do not have access to quality seeds of improved varieties that have desirable traits such as high yield, resistance to pests and diseases, tolerance to drought or salinity, etc. Establishing and streamlining accessible and sustainable seed systems is the critical need of the hour for Indian agriculture. These systems play an important role in the seed security of local landraces at the household and community levels and can be linked to germplasm conservation, enhancement and utilization #seeds #orissafoundation

Climate Change and Food and Nutrition Insecurity are two humungous development challenges of our time. A sustainable food system can not only heal the planet, but also ensure food security for all stakeholders. Climate-smart Agriculture (CSA) has emerged as a holistic approach to put an end to food security and promote sustainable development while simultaneously addressing climate change issues. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an integrated approach to managing landscapes - cropland, livestock, forests and fisheries - that address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change. CSA is a set of agricultural practices and technologies which simultaneously boost productivity, enhance resilience and reduce GHG emissions #climatesmartagriculture #orissafoundation

We are a science and technology (R2E - research to extension) organization, a public charitable trust (Trust) established in 2005 and registered in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, and having pool of professionals with international and national experience in working with the government, multilateral organizations, farmers, and other stakeholders for scientific and technical planning and execution of agriculture and livelihood projects with implementation partners to benefit the farming families of Odisha and beyond with bounds of Republic of India #orissafoundation

The Mission of Orissa Foundation is to build capacities of vulnerable farmers, youth and women primarily in Odisha, by improving their livelihood, health, education and entrepreneurship skills to achieve all-round self-sufficiency through adopting the following broad strategies:   1) Promoting education, entrepreneurship and capacity building for effective use of human resources for holistic socio-economic development in association public and private institutions and individuals   2) Helping and promoting institutions and organizations for efficient management of resources and other social development activities   3) Carrying out initiatives to make the society aware and act for the respect (mostly for social dignity of the poor and vulnerable) and to pursue nature-friendly actions, and to inculcate the urge and skill for disaster preparedness and emergency action #orissafoundation