The Ganjam administration will spend around Rs 33 crore under a central project funded and facilitated by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) for enhancing climate resilience of coastal communities, particularly fishermen. The Enhancing Climate Resilience of India’s Coastal Communities (ECRICC) project will be implemented in 33 panchayats in four coastal blocks — Chikiti, Rangeilunda, Khallikote and Ganjam.
“The project will contribute towards the ongoing efforts of the state government in addressing the impacts of the climate hazards and natural disasters on the vulnerable coastal communities through the popularisation of climate adaptive livelihood activities,” said an officer.
“The project will focus on regeneration of the coastal ecosystem and promotion of climate resilient sustainable livelihood of people in the coastal blocks in the district,” said Sunny Khokkar, divisional forest officer (DFO), Berhampur, and nodal officer of the project.
Different departments, including agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and animal resources development, watershed will be involved in implementation of the project. Under the project, the horticulture department has cultivated sunflower in around 278 hectares of land in the coastal areas in different villages on an experimental basis. Similarly, the agriculture department cultivated paddy in around 50 hectares during the last kharif season under the system of rice intensification (SRI) in Khallikote block on a pilot basis.
“In the 2023 kharif season, we have proposed to cultivate around 200 hectares through SRI in all the four coastal blocks under the project,” said Dillip Kumar Khuntia, chief district agriculture officer. “SRI cultivation is one in which paddy will be grown in less water,” he added.