Odisha's integrated approach to food, land and water

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) unveiled their latest report, Improving Policy Coherence in Food, Land, and Water Systems to Advance Sustainable Development in India: A Case Study of Odisha, during a high-profile launch event on 27^th November, 2024 at India Habitat Center in Delhi. The report showcases how the Indian state of Odisha is pioneering policy coherence efforts to sustainably manage the interlinked systems of food, land, and water (FLW) and drive progress toward national and global sustainable development goals.

The event brought together policymakers, experts, and stakeholders to discuss the findings and recommendations from the study. The IWMI and CEEW study, supported by the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies, looked at policies within FLW systems from 4 state departments. Four state policies plus five national policies were shortlisted as case studies for understanding policy coherence challenges and identifying best practices for the government to emulate.

The report highlights pathways for effective policy convergence to support India and other states in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. State-level initiatives like KALIA, OMM, OIIPCRA, and CLSRP demonstrate robust interdepartmental coordination, participatory planning, and local body involvement. For instance, OMM involves 21 departmental secretaries and various institutions, while OIIPCRA engages technical and support organizations to diversify production. CLSRP integrates pani panchayat members in participatory planning with water resource officials. Additionally, policies like MIDH and the Odisha Tribal Empowerment & Livelihoods Programme share a focus on empowering tribal communities by improving food security, incomes, and quality of life.

The report highlghts the need to enhance local body involvement. “The role of local bodies such as gram panchayats and CSOs should extend beyond implementation and impact evaluation. Including them in policy planning (e.g., OMM) can strengthen bottom-up planning and community linkages (e.g., MGNREGS, OIIPCRA), thereby creating a greater impact on the ground,” the report states.

“Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require a dedicated focus on policy coherence. This demands mechanisms for fostering adaptability in policy design and strengthening coordination among departments across sectors. Several states have already initiated innovative steps to enhance convergence, so facilitating cross-learning and sharing best practices across states will be instrumental in embedding these approaches nationwide, driving greater coherence and impact in our development policy space,” said Dr. Alok Sikka, Country Representative of IWMI-India and Bangladesh.

“Climate change is impacting our food, land, and water systems. Coherent policies for governing food production, land practices, and water use will reduce the inherent adverse tradeoffs among them and make these systems climate resilient. The learnings from Odisha will go a long way in informing the coherent approaches to land and water management in India, help identify the financing priorities for climate change adaptation, which has been traditionally underfunded, and contribute to achieving food and water security for its 1.4 billion people,” said Nitin Bassi, Team Lead of the Sustainable Water Programme at CEEW.

There is a need to enable cross-learning between states on common impact areas. “For example, cross-learning between the OMM of Odisha and the millet missions of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan can enhance programmatic understanding of the typical impact area of millet production and consumption. This will involve sharing insights on policy formulation and revisions (where OMM serves as an innovative model that can be emulated by other states) as well as product innovation for production and consumption, such as the introduction of millet cafes,” as per the report.

As per the report there is a need to “incorporate flexibility to understand the evolving needs of beneficiaries through regular participatory and data-driven processes (e.g., PMMSY, RKVY-PDMC, OMM). The state should conduct periodic reviews of policy guidelines, potentially annually, for timely inclusion of responses to changes in environmental, economic, and social conditions. For instance, it is crucial to be flexible to include further works within MGNREGS, considering the state-level context and the specific needs of disaster-affected areas. Regular revision of the cost norms and provisions is needed under MIDH to respond to inflation and market conditions over time.”

Download the full report

Author:

International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

Photo Credit:

Feature Image: Integrated Rice Fish Culture Unit Rajnagar (Source: RCDC, Odisha)

This work is part of the CGIAR Research Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS). CGIAR launched NPS with national and international partners to build policy coherence, respond to policy demands and crises, and integrate policy tools at national and subnational levels in countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. CGIAR centers participating in NPS are The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), International Potato Center (CIP), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and WorldFish. We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.