ICAR-CIWA organized Virtual Webinar on ‘Farmers Producer Organization (FPO) in Livelihood Enhancement of Farm Women’ on 18 November, 2020. Dr. P. S. Pandey, ADG (EP&HS), ICAR, New Delhi graced the programme as Chief Guest. He lauded the effort of ICAR-CIWA in empowering women in agriculture. He exposed the house to the facts on genesis of the FPOs in 2002 through company act amended through commerce ministry. He also highlighted to increase the present number of women cooperatives i.e. 8500. He narrated, women led livelihood improvement activities are keys for realizing the 5 trillion dollar economy and Government announcement towards promotion of 10000 FPOs till 2024. Dr. S. K. Srivastava, Director of the institute and Chairman of the session, highlighted the scheme of vocal for local. In this context he expressed the need for providing meaningful solution to the problem of marketing to boost local production through e-NAM.

On the occasion, Dr. Surekha Routray, Head, Social Incubation, KIIT-TBI as a speaker, in her deliberation focussed on sustainability of FPOs, opportunities for women and new developments in agri business while Dr. Khitish Kumar Sarangi, Asstt. Prof., Agril. Economics, OUAT as the next speaker apprised the participants on the genesis, laws, formation and registration procedure of FPOs. An interaction session was held to answer the queries of the farm women by the experts. After the deliberations, Chairman in his concluding remark summarized the information for better understanding by the farmwomen. About 95 participants had attended the programme through Zoom and Youtube link from different corners of rural Odisha. The programme was successfully organized by Dr. Sabita Mishra, Dr. Anil Kumar, Dr. Laxmipriya Sahoo, Dr. Ananta Sarkar, Shri B. C. Behera and Shri Subrat Kumar Das.