STRENGTHENING THE FRONTLINES OF ODISHA’S AGRICULTURAL POLICY

Two-day Capacity Building Workshop on Data Interpretation, Impact Evaluation and Policy Analysis

In the rapidly changing agricultural environment, including climate change, evolving market dynamics and increasing demand for food and nutrition security, the agricultural sector needs effective systems - more than schemes and programs. And what makes the system more effective is ‘data’, which is smart, inclusive and usable. 

To build such systems and empower those who manage them, Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment (DAFE), Government of Odisha, in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), organized a two-days residential ‘capacity building workshop on Data Interpretation, Impact Evaluation and Policy Analysis’ on April 22-23, 2025 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. The workshop was inaugurated by Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee, Principal Secretary to Government, Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, Government of Odisha.  The workshop was designed as part of a comprehensive capacity-building initiative to support the Inclusive Agriculture Transformation (IAT) framework, promoting evidence-based policy formulation and implementation.

It was organized with the support of the Gates Foundation under the Food and Agricultural System Transformation Research (FASTR) project being implemented by IFPRI. The workshop is an important milestone in the journey of evidence-based, inclusive and adaptive agricultural governance.

The Need: Data collection from Data Intelligence

Odisha has emerged as a proactive state in agricultural development with high investments in technology like digital portals i.e. Krushak Odisha, ADAPT, Ama Krushi and many more. The state has further made large scale investments in agriculture, horticulture and watershed management. With the immense scale, the state receives a huge set of data related to multiple schemes of different directorates. However, the state faces the challenge of non-standardized and fragmented data which makes it difficult to develop coherent policy insights and measurable outcomes. The state also is yet to develop a dataset which helps to measure inclusivity and resilience in the programs inter alias the emerging important indicators like commercialization, diversification and market openness.

These indicators would help the state to understand the impact of the programs on tribal households, youth, landless, women farmers and other marginalized and vulnerable sections dependent on agriculture.

The need of the workshop evolved out of these priorities which intends to make the transition from reactive monitoring to pro-active monitoring, which is data-driven and supports decision-making and from reporting from more input-based indicators to outcome-based indicators.

Diverse Participation: Common Purpose

The workshop marked presence of 32 frontline officers from different directorates under DAFE with following representation:

• Directorate of Agriculture and Food Production (50%)
• Directorate of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management (27%)
• Directorate of Horticulture (23%)

The officers were a mix of ADAPT officers, Soil Chemist, Assistant Horticulture and Agriculture Officers, Block Agriculture Officers who are directly responsible to implementation, execution and monitoring of the schemes. They also engage with the farmer households, for collecting ground-level data and ensuring last mile delivery of program benefits.

The workshop marked a strong participation of women who were 59% in number showcasing a strong commitment towards gender-sensitive capacity building in the technical subjects like remote-sensing, statistical software and policy analysis.

High-Impact Learning with Practical Relevance  

The sessions chosen for the workshop were not only practical and relevant with the nature of functions of the participants but also intended to improve their data collection and analysis skills significantly with reduced human interface. The key themes covered in the workshop were as below:

• Designing Survey and Research Techniques: The participants were taught on how to frame the survey questions, choose appropriate sampling methods, and Quasi-experimental techniques of research and additionally to conduct evidence-based evaluations.
• Introduction to Agricultural Datasets: The participants were exposed to various datasets which are commonly used in the agriculture research. The datasets includes National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MosPI), Situation Assessment Survey (SAS), the Agricultural Census, and market data.
• Data Analysis and Software tool: Introduction to Kobo Toolbox, STATA, Python and excel-based processing to improve the quality of data collection and analysis.
• Remote Sensing and GIS: These techniques were introduced to facilitate the learning on using satellite imagery, weather-based data and crop maps to support climate-smart planning.
• Policy Analysis: Participants were made acquainted with use of data to develop policy briefs, memos and communication products which can be used by the policy makers.

The measured change

The pre and post assessment done amongst the participants, reflects a significant change in their understanding and confidence in the key areas of learning.

The highest improvement was marked in the "Data Cleaning & Kobo Toolbox" session with +1.2 increase (from 2.5 to 3.7) followed by Handson database exercise with +1.1 increase. Overall, each of the sessions saw an high engagement of the participants and it is expected that with use of these tools and methods the participants will eventually enrich their understanding further to the training.  

Takeaways and the way forward

Most of the participants were vocal with their gained understanding on the key subjects like designing research questions, using agri-datasets, Kobo toolbox, remote-sensing and working on policy briefs. However, few also felt that they need subsequent trainings on each of the sessions for a much deeper understanding for further use of these tools. They also expressed their interest in a more interactive and exercise based session using a single dataset for enhanced learning.

IFPRI has taken a note of the feedback and is planning to conduct a Phase-II soon which would incorporate the feedback of this training. The Phase-II would focus more on the use of datasets using Kobo Toolbox and hence its visualization for better application in their works.

Building an evidence-driven agriculture eco-system

This training was not a stand-alone event and hence will plan a series of 3 such workshops as a part of strengthening the evidence-driven agriculture eco-system which is smart, sensitive and scalable. By investing in the capacities of the frontline officers who are responsible for grassroot implementation, the state is building a strong ecosystem for a sensitive and resilient agriculture ecosystem.

Shri Shubhranshu Mishra (OAS, Additional Secretary, DAFE)  also during the valedictory underscored the value of data in governance: “Sourcing accurate information is key to problem-solving. Data is essential to optimize resources, and this training will support more effective, evidence-based decision-making.”.

As the state leads the way in digital agriculture, such capacity building initiatives would be instrumental in realizing its vision of an inclusive, climate resilient and impactful agriculture ecosystem.

Amit Kumar Burman is a Project Coordinator with IFPRI’s Development Strategies and Governance Unit, based in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha; Shubhranshu Mishra is Additional Secretary, Odisha Administrative Services; Dr. Sangram Keshari Pattanaik is Deputy Director-Agriculture, Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Government of Odisha; Vandana S. Vidhani is a DSG Research Analyst based in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. Opinions are of the authors’.