Agriculture Policy and Development in Eastern India

This book endeavors to foster awareness among readers about the immense potential of sound agricultural policies and practices for broader societal benefits. It will concentrate on promoting sustainable resource management to boost high-quality agriculture and allied sectors in eastern India, thereby enhancing the livelihoods of people in the region as well as throughout the nation.

Sri Suresh Chandra Patnaik got his Master's degree from Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT) in 1968 at the age of 23 and subsequently got appointment in OUAT as scientist in rice research, an ICAR assisted project on national demonstration and a faculty in the entomology department for about 10 years from 1968 to 1978. During 1978 till 2003, for about 25 years, he joined in the agriculture department, Government of Odisha and served in various capacities such as specialist officer; faculty in Institute on Management of Agriculture Extension (IMAGE) and training coordinator for lady village agriculture workers under Training and Extension for Women in Agriculture (TEWA) Project being funded by DANIDA; district agriculture officer; deputy director of agriculture and joint director of agriculture. He had retired during 2003 from the Government of Odisha service as managing director, Odisha State Seed Corporation, Bhubaneswar.

After retirement from government service, he worked about 12 years from 2003 till 2015 as national consultant in United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) & Government of India (GOI) supported Project ;Strengthening Natural Resource Management & Sustainable Livelihood for Women in Tribal & Cyclone affected districts of Odisha” and remained as programme officer in livelihoods and natural resource management, as an expert and consultant in International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) assisted programme in Odisha Tribal Empowerment and Livelihood Programme (OTELP). Again during 2010, IFAD put him as a member in its review mission in agriculture of Jharkhand Tribal Development Programme (JTDP). He also worked as state implementing officer in Programme Support Unit (PSU) of OTELP, overseeing the implementation and monitoring of IFAD assisted programs such as International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) projects on legumes, Tuber crops and Micro irrigation project etc. from 2007-2013. Since 2013, he has been working to enable and empower the poor and marginalized farmers, comprising of the deprived and disadvantaged in rural and urban areas of Odisha; a board member in Tagore Society of Rural Development (TSRD)- Odisha; Civil Societies Organization and continuing till date. During 2015, he had worked in RICOR (Research and Information Centre) for Odisha as a consultant and also continuing till date. In addition to these consultative assignments, he has contributed significantly to the training initiatives in agricultural domain. He worked as a team member for initiating a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) to district plans and helped to develop a decentralized planning manual for Odisha including preparation of district plan for Deogarh district. In 2016, he worked for administrative staff college of India, Hyderabad as a consultant for TNA to prepare district plans and subsequently trained the stakeholders on processes and methodologies for preparation of district plans. During 2013, the Agriculture and Farmers' Empowerment Department, Government of Odisha, had nominated him as a member to the board of management of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) till 2019 and for the second time till 2025. He is facilitating and regulating many policy matters with ground realities, benefiting OUAT to mainstream in its right way and helps in transformation to a modern agriculture university in eastern India as well as in the country. Besides, he prepared the concept note on skill development for transformation of agriculture into an enterprise for Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADAC) during May, 2020, which was accepted by the Government of Odisha. During December 2020, he had facilitated OUAT to prepare a detailed project report, on which the Oversight Authority, OMBADAC approved and sanctioned for Skill Training Courses for Agricultural Knowledge Actors (AKA) on agriculture & allied sectors.

During his career, he has consciously invested to his own learning and development by attending various training programs and seminars. During 2009, he had attended the IFAD-FAO sponsored regional agro industries forum for Asia and Pacific at Yangling, China. Further, he had participated in the annual workshop and training programme under IFAD - ICRISAT project conducted in Vietnam and Nepal during the same year. During 2010, he had also visited Philippines to Sloping Agriculture Land Technology (SALT) models being developed by World Agro forestry Centre, South East Asia, Philippine & attended its training sessions. There, he had visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines and had discussed with the scientists regarding rain-fed upland technologies in rice. He had also attended various training programmes in ICRISAT, Hyderabad; ICAR-Directorate of Groundnut Research, Junagarh; ICAR- Directorate of Rice Research, Hyderabad; National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) , Hyderabad and Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad. He also participated in training programmes in the save grain campaign at Udaipur, Rajasthan and IFAD sponsored national civil societies organization at BAIF, Gujarat and Karnataka, Bhaktivedanta Academy, Mayapur, Mysore and MYRYDA, Anantapur, Karnataka. In 2009, he had published his first book, ;Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture and Horticulture Development”. During 2019, he published his second book titled ;My Dream OUAT: Transformation towards Modern Agriculture University in India”. In addition to this, he has provided his inputs, support, and guidance to six other books namely (i) Trainers Training Manual on Agriculture by OTELP, 2010 (ii) Trainers' Training Manual on Horticulture (Part I) by OTELP, 2010 (iii) Trainers Training Manual on Horticulture (Part ii) by OTELP, 2010 (iv) Manual on Land and Water Management by OTELP, 2009 (v) Successful interventions of RKVY in OTELP areas of Odisha ,2014 and (vi) Horticulture for Rural Development, written by Dr Sanghamitra Pattnaik, 2019. Further he had prepared a brochure on OUAT- the New Horizon: Facilitation to Regulate Policy Matters and Feedback on Ground Reality of OUAT (from October 2019 to June 2021).

His interests include natural resource management, livelihood improvement, rural resource governance, agricultural policy research and climate change. Besides he has got special interests in existing seed systems resilience and pest management in climate change scenario. In the last 50 years of his professional career, he has been associated in agricultural teaching, research, extension, programme planning for the agricultural endeavour in Odisha, India particularly South Asia.