The Government of Odisha held the Krushi Odisha event at Bhubaneswar from February 16 to 18, 2023. This event served as a platform offering many opportunities to farmers, governmental officials, international organisations, agri-experts and other stakeholders, through exchange of knowledge on best products and practices leading to farm profitability; and to develop understanding on various factors in value chain management of agri-commodities.

Dr Konda Reddy Chavva, Officer-in-charge at FAO India, participated in this event and shared the global experiences and practices to build a resilient millet ecosystem for benefit of farmers and the nation as a whole. He talked about FAO's Regional Knowledge Platform on One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) in Asia and the Pacific, which aims to promote technical and institutional innovations that strengthen the sustainable development of special agricultural products (SAPs). Being indigenous nutri-cereals, millets has been chosen as the OCOP in India. The Regional Knowledge Platform is intended for a wide range of users, from governments to the private sector, from international organizations to academia and civil society, all of which need access to qualified knowledge on SAPs. Under OCOP, FAO will be facilitating a video film on millets. The video shoot, scheduled for March 2023 in the Keonjhar (Kendujhar) district, will film on millets value-chain ranging from millets production, procurement processes, processing unit, marketing, and their integration into social protection programs such as Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the Public Distribution System (PDS).

He further shared that via South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC),FAO aims to build new partnerships for integrated rural development. SSTC plays a greater role than ever before in the international development cooperation landscape, and innovation in the South is generating new tools and partnerships for tackling issues of food insecurity, poverty and sustainable agriculture.

Additionally, FAO intends to strengthen rural household resilience to climate change to reduce the pressure to migrate out of distress. It hopes to do this through improved knowledge and access to climate-smart agriculture practices, low-cost technologies, and improved access to information on agribusinesses and rural employment orientation services.