ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar organised brainstorming session on “Strengthening women dairy cooperatives in Odisha to countervail market risk” on 26th April, 2023

A brainstorming session was organised on 26th April, 2023 in virtual mode on “Strengthening women dairy cooperatives in Odisha to countervail market risk” under the Institute project of “Assessment of role of Organised dairy sector on livelihood of women” with panellist from different segments of dairy sector of Odisha and Gujarat under the Chairmanship of Dr. Anil Kumar, Principal scientist, ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar to discuss about the progress and strategies developed by ICAR-CIWA to mitigate market risks faced by women dairy farmers in Odisha. The meeting was attended by
  1. Sri. Niaranjan Karade, Team Leader (Innovation and Project Management Cell), National Dairy Development Board, Anand, Gujarat
  2. Sri. Sadhu Dinesh, Manager, NABARD, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
  3. Dr. Shakti Ranjan Panigrahy, Assistant Professor, Agribusiness Economics and Policy, International Agribusiness Management Institute, Anand Agricultural University, Gujarat
  4. Dr. Smruti Smita Mohapatra, Research fellow, Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence, IRMA, Anand
  5. Dr. Sarada Prasanna Sahoo, Central Cattle Breeding Farm, Chiplima, Ministry of Fishery Animal Husbandry and Dairying, India
  6. Samapika Mohanty, Jajpur Unit, Cuttack Milk Union, OMFED, Odisha
  7. Dr. Arun Kumar Panda, Principal scientist, ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar
  8. Dr. Biswanath Sahoo, Principal scientist, ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar
  9. Dr. Arpita Mohapatra, Scientist, ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar
After giving warm welcome to the delegates, Dr.Arpita Mohapatra the project leader started the session with her presentation highlighting research coverage and strategies identified for strengthening the women dairy cooperatives in Odisha. Sri. Karade emphasised that it is dire need to develop the business acumen among women farmers which generally lacks in non-coastal districts of Odisha. Sri. Dinesh discussed about different schemes through which women dairy farmers can get easy loans for their recurring expenditures in dairy. Dr. Panigrahy suggested linking this research work to the business incubation centres of CIFA, Bhubaneswar and OUAT, Bhubaneswar. Dr. Smruti mentioned that different apps were developed by NDDB like “e Gopala app”, but these are not accessible to women dairy farmers due to lack of awareness for it. Dr. Sahoo from Ministry of Fishery Animal Husbandry and Dairying, India suggested to go for SWOT analysis of private dairies of Odisha and OMFED. Dr. Anil Kumar concluded with the remark that this meeting has laid a roadmap as well as the direction for the future course of activities under the ongoing project.