Workshop on Scaling up Resilience Project Interventions through KVKs and State Line Departments

A workshop on the upscaling of interventions from the RESILIENCE project was held on January 24th at ICAR-NRRI Cuttack. Project partners from OUAT, NRRI, MSSRF, IWMI, as well as officials from Seven Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and District Agriculture officers participated. Dr. A. K. Nayak, Director of NRRI, facilitated the workshop. He suggested to identifying technologies, assessing their suitability, determining their cost-benefit ratio, identifying technological barriers and solutions, and possibility of getting support from the state government before deciding the upscaling. The project partners presented their achievements and proposed plans for upscaling. The KVKs also presented their initiatives for upscaling. After the presentations, a productive discussion was held among the partners, Agriculture department officials and KVKs, where they shared the possibilities and constraints of upscaling.

It was highlighted that many Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies have been tested, validated and implemented by the partners, and farmers in the project area had obtained good results from implementing these technologies. The KVKs and the Agriculture Departments are also already implementing some of these technologies in certain areas. As a result, it was decided that proven technologies suitable for particular locations should be considered for upscaling. After the presentations and detailed discussions, a committee was formed to draft an upscaling plan. The committee will consist of project partners and KVK coordinators, and will prepare a draft upscaling plan. Once it is completed, it will be circulated to district-level Agriculture department officials for their input. The finalised upscaling plan will be presented before the Resilience project State Advisory Committee and the final upscaling plan will be shared with the relevant district and state level authorities for implementation.