DRWA Celebrated ‘Technology Week for Women in Agriculture’ in a Tribal Village Guptapada, Khurda

As part of the ‘Technology Week for Women in Agriculture’ celebrations of the Directorate of Research on Women in Agriculture (DRWA), Bhubaneswar, an off-campus programme was conducted on 24th January 2014 in a tribal village viz., Guptapada in Jatni block of Khurda district. The programme was conducted under the project ‘Multi Agency Participatory Extension Model (MAPEM) for livelihood improvement of rural women through backyard poultry’ in association with Central Poultry Development Organization, Bhubaneswar.

In this connection, a programme on ‘Training on rearing of backyard poultry’ was organized in which farm women/ farm families were given tips on how they will be benefited by rearing backyard poultry as well as what kind of precautions they should follow for getting maximum benefit. Dr. Anil Kumar, Principal Scientist, DRWA and Dr. Dr. B. K. Mallick, Joint Director, CPDO, Bhubaneswar participated in the programme as resource persons. The programme was followed by Scientist – Farm Women Interface where a number of problems were mentioned regarding insect pest attack in paddy, workload of farm women, lack of extension services, lack of follow up supports etc. by farm women to the experts which made the programme more lively.
The programme also included knowledge and skill upgradation of farm women/ families through demonstration of immunization of poultry chicks. Dr. Mallick demonstrated the process of immunization of chicks and imparted the skill to master trainers including 6 women and 2 men. The master trainers then vaccinated on the spot 250 poultry chicks.
A ‘Knowledge Debate’ among farm women, on the topic ‘Involvement of Farm Women in Agriculture and Allied Areas’ was also conducted on this occasion. A number of tribal women participated in this competition. Dr. Anil Kumar, Dr. Sabita Mishra and Dr. Ananta Sarkar facilitated the programme, Smt. Draupadi Behera, Smt. Lily Nayak and Smt. Saria Nayal won the first, second and third prize, respectively.
About 60 tribal farm families participated in the programme. All the participants showed enthusiasm in the activities undertaken and were appreciative of the efforts of the DRWA team consisting of Dr. Sabita Mishra, Dr. Anil Kumar, Dr. Ananta Sarkar, Mr. B.C. Behera and Mr. Subrat Kumar Das.