Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence (VKCoE) at IRMA organized a two-day Workshop on Doubling Farmers’ Income: Pathways for Cooperatives in Odisha, in collaboration with the Department of Cooperation, Government of Odisha and International Cooperative Alliance – Asia Pacific (ICA-AP). The workshop took place on 29th and 30th August 2019 at Bhubaneswar.

Day 1 of the workshop was inaugurated by Shri Ranendra Pratap Swain Hon’ble Minister of Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, Cooperation, Govt. of Odisha and Chief Guest Dr Arun Kumar Sahoo, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture & Farmers' Empowerment, Fisheries & Animal Resources Development, Higher Education, Govt. of Odisha. The inauguration also saw the presence of dignitaries: Shri Vir Vikram Yadav Secretary, Department of Cooperation, Govt. of Odisha; Shri Balasubramanian (Balu) Iyer, Regional Director, International Cooperative Alliance-Asia Pacific; Shri B B Patnaik Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS), Government of Odisha; Shri Akshyakumar Mohanty, President, Odisha State Cooperative Bank (OSCB); and Shri Debendra Kumar Jena, Managing Director, Odisha State Cooperative Bank (OSCB).

In his inaugural address Hon’ble Minister Shri Swain explained Odisha's unique socio-economic profile which, he said, should be approached differently. He also emphasized the need to harness the potential of PACS and women Self Help Groups.

Hon’ble Minister Dr Sahoo, in his address, urged participants to undertake case studies to understand ways to (1) improve farmers' purchasing power (2) increase the contribution of nationalized banks to cooperatives in Odisha (3) suggest reforms to the Cooperative Act.

The inaugural session was followed by a Panel Discussion where an introduction and overview from each perspective was put forth and discussed.

Further two theme discussions were conducted:

Theme 1: Governance and Leadership in Cooperatives: Enabling factors for DFI | Session Chair: Regional Director, ICA-AP | Theme Moderator: Prof Sridhar Vishwanath/Prof Harekrishna Misra.

Theme 2: Infrastructure, Services and Ecosystem Convergence: Enabling factors for DFI | Session Chair: Dr. K K Tripathy, IES, Director, VAMNICOM | Theme Moderators: Prof. Shivshanker Singh Patel/ Prof. S R Asokan.

Day 2 of the workshop saw two more theme discussions:

Theme 3: Member Centrality: Enabling factors for DFI | Dr. Patanjali Tripathy, Department of Cooperation, Govt of Odisha / Dr. Shantanu Ghosh, Madhusudan Institute of Co-operative Management | Theme Moderators: Prof. Saswata Biswas/ Prof. Harekrishna Misra.

Theme 4: Government Strategies and Policies: Enabling factors for DFI | Session Chair: Smt Gayatri Patnaik, Deputy Director Statistics, Dept. of Cooperation, Govt of Odisha | Theme Moderators: Prof. SR Asokan.

The theme discussions were followed by the valediction where Prof Harekrishna Misra, Chair, VKCoE and Workshop Moderator summarized the two days of deliberation. Concluding remarks were added by Dr. M. Muthukumar, IAS, Director, Agriculture and Food Production, Govt. of Odisha; ; Shri B B Patnaik Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS), Government of Odisha; and Shri Debendra Kumar Jena, IAS, MD, Odisha State Cooperative Bank (OSCB).

The detailed workshop report with discussion outcomes and way forward shall be shared by VKCoE-IRMA. Based on the report, Govt. of Odisha and IRMA will work jointly on the way forward.

VKCoE

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