BHUBANESWAR: The state Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment department on Monday signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with leading business school Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad to improve nutrition outcomes and climate resilient support for agriculture.
ISB will support the department in improving nutrition outcomes among low-income households from increased availability, accessibility and affordability of nutrient-dense foods. The institute will provide responsive research and technical support for using agriculture-nutrition convergence, policy, markets, and technology for alleviating nutrition outcomes, said Agriculture minister Ranendra Pratap Swain.
This apart, ISB will assist the state government in establishing a climate resilience support cell. It will undertake research for identifying and understanding factors that affect resilience of crops, farmers, and rural livelihoods in the state towards climate variability. The institute will also support the department in identifying policy innovations and pathways for a climate-resilient agriculture roadmap for the state.
ISB’s Bharti Institute of Public Policy will undertake research to produce a comprehensive report and case study on the Odisha Millets Mission. The department will anchor the collaboration and enable coordination of policies and programmes among different departments and stakeholders to achieve the objectives of improving the nutrition status of the state.
Director, Agriculture and Food Production Prem Chandra Chaudhary and executive director, ISB-BIPP, Hyderabad, Prof Ashwini Chhatre signed the agreement in presence of the minister and principal secretary, Agriculture Arabinda Padhee.