Millet Mission Odisha Nominated for Skoch Award

Kudos!

Millet Mission Odisha (Special Programme for Promotion of Millets in Tribal Areas) has been nominated for Skoch Awards. In this connection, a presentation (see SlideShare, and video in Facebook from 24 minutes onwards) was made before the jury on 9th November 2017.  It is now open for popular voting through twitter and votes will be polled till 1700 hours of 18th November 2017.  You are requested to vote for your Millet Mission with ID_106.

Unique Features of the Mission

• The setting up of an Institutional Architecture that brought together three pillars of progress - Government (Krushibibhag and P&C Department, Odisha), Civil Society (WASSAN and a host of other partners) and Academia (NCDS, an ICSSR institute) from Day One.
• It addressed the Chicken-Egg paradox of who comes first by agreeing on a framework with concurrent emphasis on four verticals - production, consumption, processing, and marketing.
• It brought together science and tradition. The knowledge of improved agronomic practices and use of suitable equipment was superimposed on the understanding of local biodiversity and existing agricultural practices.
• Initiatives are being taken to pilot inclusion of millets in State Nutrition Programmes (SNPs) like Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), school Mid-Day-Meals (MDMs), and Ashram Schools and also for its procurement through the Public Distribution System (PDS).

Challenges

• The concerns before the government was:
• to select credible Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) as Civil Society partners to work as facilitating agencies at the block level, 
• to ensure replicability of the programme, and 
• to build ownership within the department.
• The concerns of Programme Secretariat, WASSAN, was 
• to address the delay in the signing of agreements with the facilitating agencies, 
• to ensure capacity building and orientation of community based organisations, 
• to facilitate timely release of funds, and 
• to conduct regular review.
• NCDS had to address the requirement of 
• real-time policy feedback, 
• exploring collaboration with others, and 
• developing a baseline.

Strategies

• The Government addressed the concerns by
• instituting a three-level selection process (evaluation of applications on pre-determined parameters, presentations before Officials under the Chairmanship of the Collector-cum-District Magistrate, and verification of claims through field visits),
• meticulous development of guidelines, and 
• regular involvement of senior bureaucrats and participatory orientation. 
• The Programme Secretariat addressed the challenges by
• active follow-up on a daily basis,
• involving the facilitating agencies in selection, orientation and capacity building of community based organisations,
• helping in the preparation of documents including the monthly participatory implementation plans, and
• working in close coordination wit the Department officials and ownership by the officials that facilitated regular review.  
• NCDS addressed its requirement by
• regular state/district level consultations and providing feedback through channels that are conventionally not considered academic,
• exploring collaboration with other academic bodies and networks, and
• developing a participatory baseline.

Scaleability and Replicability

The emphasis was given at the design stage to work out the details in the guidelines for implementation at the block, district and state level. Besides, the strengths of Government, Civil Society and Academia were identified to complement and supplement each other to facilitate nutritional security and climate resilience.

Response to the programme in its first year has been positive and the Government, in principle, has agreed to extend the scheme to another 25 blocks. Moreover, the design of the programme has been been such that the additional 25 blocks are now to be considered under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

Independently, there are queries and/or talks with Governments in Rajasthan and Maharashtra as also Civil Society groups in Chattisgarh and Jharkhand, and also Government of India.

There are also plans to converge this programme with other programmes of Integrated Farming and Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY).    

Why you should vote?

This is one of the rare initiatives where Government, Civil Society and Academia have come together to address nutrition security and climate resilience. 

This is also a rare opportunity for an initiative from an ICSSR institute to be nominated. Thus, social scientist should feel that extra urge, but scientist should also see the merit because the proposed intervention for academia goes beyond social science.

The intervention is working through a convergence mode, both within and between, for all stakeholders. As such, it is possible that you also end up being a part of this initiative.

It is likely to bring in a sense of pride in you (perhaps because you appreciate this innovative initiative or you have some nostalgia with Millets or you empathise with traditional/sustainable agriculture  or you happen to be from Odisha or for something that is beyond all these), and hence, you need to support.

How you can vote?  

Voting is possible either through a twitter account or through your email. You may open a twitter account if you do not have one. To vote, follow the following steps:

• Go to the link at skoch.tk/voting. To register enter your name, agree to the Terms and Conditions and click on the Confirm button.
• Sign in using either your twitter account (use twitter user_id and password and allow Skoch access to your twitter account, you can remove the access at a later date) or email (first create and account by providing your email id, phone no and a password - note that this password need not be your email password).
• Signing-in will take you to Skoch 50th Summit Popular Vote. Scroll to the right and click on View Nominations.
• From the 157 nominations, scroll down to ID/Sl.No. 106 for the Special Programme for the Promotion of Millets in Tribal Areas (or Millet Mission). Scroll to the right and click on the corresponding Vote.
• You have to vote before 17.00 hours of 18 November 2017

Do vote and do share this pro people initiative.