An exposure visit of tribal farm families to ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar was organized for the project beneficiaries from Village Kamaninga in Dhenkanal district on 23rd January, 2016. The programme was organized under the collaborative project on ‘Livelihood and Nutritional Improvement of Tribal Farm Families through Horticulture’.

The programme was started with the hearty welcome and briefing about the ‘Exposure Visit’ by Dr. Naresh Babu, Principal Scientist and PI of the Project. In his address, he highlighted the research and extension activities of ICAR-CIWA for the empowerment of farmwomen, technologies in horticultural production, raising vegetable seedlings using pro-trays, and low-cost protected cultivation of vegetable crops. It was followed by field visit to the ICAR-CIWA horticultural farms, wherein the farm families were exposed to different models such as development of mother block of horticultural crops, floriculture, resource efficient horticultural models, vertical farming, inclusion of legume vegetables, mulching and drip irrigation in fruits and vegetable crops for efficient utilization of water, coconut based multi-storey cropping model for enhancing productivity per unit area, livelihood as well as nutritional security of farm families. Moreover these models will be sustainable and helpful in risk reduction of farm women during calamities. Tuber crops can be included in the model for food security of farm families during lean period. On-field advisories were also issued to the participants on improved vegetable production technologies.

Twenty five tribal farm families participated in the programme. The programme was coordinated by the project team, Dr. Naresh Babu, Dr. J. C. Jeeva, Smt. Tapaswini Sahoo and Shri. Sanjay Kr. Behera.