08-March-2020 - In celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day, IRRI organized a one-day interactive meeting with forty women farmers at Khamanga Village in Khordha district of Odisha to discuss challenges and opportunities and to raise awareness on improved crop management practices.
During the interactive session, the women farmers raised climate-related issues being faced by the village and expressed their desire to get more information on improved technologies to help combat the issues.
In particular, Moong crop, which is currently in the field, has been affected by untimely rain feared to result in a great production loss. According to the women farmers, they had faced a similar situation last year as well and it has now dampened their motivation to go for a second crop.
IRRI officials advised the women farmers to go for short duration, YMV resistant varieties like IPM 2-5-7 (VIRAT), SIKHA (IPM 410-3) and IPM 2-14 which can be harvested early and saves the crop from untimely rainfall.
The women farmers also took part in various ongoing capacity-building activities organized by the Department of Agriculture and other agencies to increase their knowledge base and in turn increase their say in decision making.
Most of the women farmers are involved in kitchen gardening and grow different types of vegetables mostly for household consumption. Representatives from Reliance Foundation introduced them to the crop management advisory published daily in the local newspaper Sambad which can help them in raising their crops better. They also learned about the toll-free number which can connect them to the agri-experts directly.
IRRI has been working in the village on climate-smart technologies, so the officials organized a small quiz to see the level of awareness among women farmers. The women farmers answered questions on Rice Crop Manager (RCM) and pulse cultivations and the winners received prizes.
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