Dikhyaa Mohanty 
As part of the Food Land and Water (FLW) project supported by CGIAR Initiative on Strategies Initiatives (NPS), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) organized a state-level consultation workshop today in Bhubaneswar on “Policy Coherence in Food, Land, and Water (FLW) Systems: A case study of Odisha.” In order to increase coherence among these three vital sectors—food, land, and water—the project seeks to identify important state-level policies in these domains.
This led to the identification of four significant state-level policies: the Odisha Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture (OIIPCRA), the Canal Lining and System Rehabilitation Programme (CLSRP), the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA), and the Odisha Millet Mission (OMM). They guarantee rural employment, the development of sustainable watersheds, efficient use of water in the agricultural sector, and the improvement of the potential of the horticultural and fisheries sectors. Together with guaranteeing food and water security, these policies may also help to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which include reducing poverty and generating jobs and means of subsistence.
Principal Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Government of Odisha, Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee, shared her thoughts on the study, saying, “The State Government has invested in an array of initiatives for raising farmer welfare on a sustained and sustainable basis.” The Department is always harping on the need to integrate the Food, Land, Water, and Energy nexus system with appropriate policy space that will strengthen and sustain agriculture production system as well as Climate Resilient with science and evidence-based initiatives. The Department is eager to cooperate with research organizations that are engaged in this field.
