ICAR-CIWA and MANAGE, Hyderabad On-line Collaborative Training Programme

ICAR-CIWA and MANAGE, Hyderabad organized an on-line collaborative Training Programme on “Participator Gender Approaches for Agriculture Development” during 23-28 January, 2023. The training comprised of several on-line lectures from Guest Experts from CIWA, MANAGE and other ICAR-Institutes with an aim to update the Extension scientists, Academicians, Students and Professionals in agriculture development with the latest gender-sensitive approaches in agriculture development. The participants were appraised with basic concepts of Gender, contribution of ICAR-CIWA towards gender mainstreaming and women empowerment and enhancing gender economic equity. Additionally, the information on Gender-disaggregated databases, Women-inclusive extension approaches, methodologies provided them an insight of actual participation of farm women in agriculture and a need for mainstreaming them. The current issues of farm women such as impact of climate change and nutrition security through agri-nutrition linkage, initiatives of Nutri-Smart villages and income enhancement through value addition were also included in the course outline. Furthermore, the drudgery of women farmers and its alleviation through mechanization, women friendly Govt. schemes, policies and women-friendly technologies in crop, horticulture, fisheries and animal science sectors were also elaborated. The effective way of Participatory Communication for Gendered approach and digitization in agriculture through artificial intelligence, ICT approaches were also covered as a part of the course programme. The training programme received an overall 285 applications, out of which 66 registered participants were shortlisted, which further comprised of 29 female and 36 male participants from 17 states, 2 union territories and 2 International participation. Overall, the training consisted of several interactive sessions, presentations, open discussions, which enabled the participants to enhance their existing knowledge and experience in agriculture extension and development. The training was successfully coordinated by Dr. A.K. Panda, Principal Scientist & Dr. Veenita Kumari, Deputy Director (Gender Studies), MANAGE, Hyderabad as Course Coordinators along with Dr. B. Sahoo (Principal Scientist) and Dr. Ankita Sahu (Scientist) as Course Co-coordinators.