The Government of India, Department of Agricultural Research and Education approved the proposal of ICAR- Directorate of Research on Women in Agriculture (DRWA), renamed now as Central Institute for Women in Agriculture (CIWA) for setting up of GAP India-Hub at a total budget of INR 424.15 lakhs (USD 0.682 million USD) up to financial year 2016-17, in its 12th Five Year Plan EFC.
Giving details of the development, Dr. Neelam Grewal, Director, ICAR-CIWA said that this is the culmination of the sustained efforts to pursue the GAP agenda, finalised during the Global Conference on Women in Agriculture (New Delhi,13th-15th March,2012) co-organized by ICAR-DRWA with GFAR, APAARI and a number of multilateral organizations.
As a result of the Conference, the Government of India (through ICAR) had committed to reorient India’s agri-research agenda to include a greater emphasis on gender over five years, with the DRWA playing a key role, and operating a hub to leverage the Government's commitment to catalyze GAP activities in South Asia and link with partners in other countries.
Apart from the approval for GAP, the Government of India also approved various women focussed agricultural programmes through ICAR-CIWA including GAP- India Hub, with a total budget of INR 3856.67 lakhs (USD 6.20 million) and under an All India Coordinated Research Project having a budget of INR 10956.71 lakhs (USD 17.635 million) towards the research on women in agriculture.
Key highlights of the programmes approved by ICAR for women in agriculture in India are:
- Upgradation of the Directorate of Research on Women in Agriculture to a Central Institute and renaming it as Central Institute for Women in Agriculture (ICAR-CIWA) with a revised mandate and objectives.
- Apart from the mandated activities of the ICAR-CIWA for women in agriculture, the following inter-institutional collaborative, outreach and flag ships programmes have been approved to be undertaken up to the financial year 2016-17 in collaboration with selected research institutions, universities and other organisations under National Agricultural Research and Education System (NARES):
a) Integrated farming system for improvement of nutrition and livelihood of farm women under different agro-ecosystems.
b) Livelihood and nutritional improvement of tribal farm women through horticulture.
c) Empowerment of farm women through livestock technologies.
d) Empowerment of farm women for quality living.
e) Outreach programme ‘Demonstration of institutional innovations for engendering agricultural research and extension’.
f) Two flagship projects viz., (i) Ergonomic studies for increasing working efficiency and productivity of farm women and (ii) Gender Knowledge System in Agriculture.
Stake holders: All practitioners- organisations associated with NARES,
International and regional organisations, farm-women.
Areas: Issues related to women in agriculture- Agriculture (Resource
Management), Horticulture, Livestock & Fisheries, Nutrition and Livelihood
Security, Mitigation of Drudgery, Gender and Policy.
Blog post written by Neelam Grewal, Director ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar.