SRI in Orissa - Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture ...

The State Level Dialogue and Beyond
There is a general feeling that Orissa as a state is very
much new to SRI and that the rate of adoption is quite less
compared to other states. In fact there is no convergence
among key players and the extent of adoption is not
properly documented and focused in a larger forum. For
this, CWS organised one state level dialogue on SRI in
Orissa in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture,
Government of Orissa; the Xavier Institute of Management,
Bhubaneswar; Oxfam GB East India Office, Kolkata and the
WWF Dialogue Project in the month of June 2007. Various
stakeholders such as farmers, civil society representatives,
government staff, bureaucrats, scientists, researchers,
policy makers and other interest groups came together
to throw light upon the progress of SRI in Orissa, and the
various critical issues related to technical, social and policy
implications. The goal was to ensure synergy in the work of
the key players and to ensure that mostly small and marginal
farmers are benefited. During the workshop it was also felt
that such kind of events should be organised at a periodic
interval in order to bring refinement in the approach and
also to provide a platform to initiate debate on policy level
matters relating to SRI in Orissa.
ORC has taken a proactive role for up scaling SRI in Orissa.
It is perceived that there is a great need to have a visible
replicable impact. For this a contiguous patch in southeastern
Orissa comprising of six districts (Rayagada, Koraput,
Ganjam, Nayagarh, Navrangpur and Malkangiri) has been
selected for up scaling in the initial phase. In these districts,
CWS partners will be working with a consortium approach
in collaborative mode and each one has involved up to five
grass root organisations /farmers group /CBOs /federation.
This way the outreach will be more and the consortium as
a whole will be able to address the issue at a larger level.
In these districts mostly small and marginal tribal farmers
have been targeted.
For carrying forward this initiative, steps have already been
taken by ORC to collaborate with Sir Dorabji Tata Trust,
Mumbai as far as raising resources is concerned. Given
the tremendous potential of SRI to maximise production
from small land holdings using less water and other inputs
like seeds, fertilisers etc. and thereby minimising the cost
of production to a great extent, ORC is motivated to put
it further on the agriculture map of Orissa. ORC is also
planning to promote SRI in the rest of the districts of the
state within its capacity in the days to come.
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Towards a Learning Alliance: SRI in Orissa