As part of the CIWA-IRRI Collaborative Project on 'Increased Productivity of Rice based Cropping Systems and Farmers Income in Odisha', a one-day seminar on ''Towards Wider and Lasting Impacts: IRRI's Gender R4D Strategy'' was organized at ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar on 20 July, 2017.

Dr. Ranjitha Puskur, Gender Research Programme Leader from International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) delivered the seminar. The global scenario of gender research for development, IRRI's strategies for development of women leaders, and the strategies to ensure sustainable impacts of women empowerment programmes were highlighted in the seminar. The programme was presided over by Dr. Jatinder Kishtwaria, Director, ICAR-CIWA, and Dr. Poornima Shankar, Lead Specialist from IRRI participated as Guest of Honour. All the Scientific and Technical staff from ICAR-CIWA had a pro-active participation, and made the session more interactive.

An interface was also held among the partner institutions viz., ICAR-CIWA, IRRI and NGOs regarding the technical programme and future course of action pertaining to the project component 'Women Leadership for Impact in Agricultural Development'