Empower women in agriculture!
19 / 07/ 2019
The FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) recently launched a project to empower women in agriculture and is working on key three initiatives.
Harjinder Kaur Talwar, national president of FLO, told The Hindu on Wednesday that “FLO Agriculture Initiative” was launched in April this year in association with the Union Ministry of Agriculture. Of the total women population in the country, 71 % is associated with agriculture. They need to be trained and empowered. At the policy-level, the Organisation is trying to talking to two States for amendments in the laws concerned so that women who take up agriculture can be classified as farmers and can avail of all the benefits.
It also tied up with a non-governmental organisation to train women hailing from Telangana, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh in extracting and preserving custard apple pulp. “We will talk to ice cream makers and work on a tie-up so that they can buy the pulp to make ice creams,” she said. Another initiative is to train women in bee rearing. It was started on a pilot basis in Ludhiana and will be launched across the country by the end of next month.
“Our international delegation this year will visit Israel to study its technologies in agriculture. Israel has a few centres of excellence in agriculture in India. We will look at technology transfer and training women in agriculture technologies,” Ms. Talwar added. Another project to be launched nation-wide is training of young girls in Information Technology. “The aim of FLO is to empower women economically. Young girls will be trained to become employable. This will be done by all the FLO chapters. The plan is to train 1,000 young women this year.”
The Organisation also conducts workshops and programmes for professionals. It will conduct sessions for women who are members of Corporate company boards and train women to become members. It will host on its website the names of women whom it has trained.
Poonam Bafna, chairperson of FLO - Coimbatore, said it plans to launch soon programmes for women in the district in bee rearing and millet cultivation. With investment opportunities present across the country, the organisation members wants to know about the potential and opportunities here. The two-day FLO programme here on Thursday and Friday, with 157 participants from other States, also has an expo of products made by the Organisation members.
Inaugurating the event, District Collector K. Rajamani said the district is unique and has opportunities for growth in healthcare, education, manufacturing, and textiles.
Source (The Hindu)
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