A talk was organised by KSRM on 20th August, 2022 for the students of MBA (RM) and PGDCD.
Mr. Debaraj Behera,International Consultant, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and Global Food and Agriculture Practice (GFADR), The World Bank was the speaker for the talk. An expert in agribusiness partnership, value chain, climate smart agriculture, eco-agriculture, watershed development, food & nutrition security, and sanitation; he has designed large scale community-driven development projects of the World Bank in South East Asia and East Asia Pacific. Apart from this, he has fifteen years of implementation experience in the Ministry of Rural Development (Government of India), Department of Rural Development, (Government of Bihar), NGOs, and the private sector. He has designed and implemented innovation forums in the format of “Development Market Place” of the World Bank and “Young Professionals Program” to integrate innovations, innovators (private partners), for the development of rural poor and introduced high-quality development professionals to work in the rural development programs for improving the efficiency of programs are his unique contributions.Mr. Debaraj holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT ) and Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).
In his talk, Mr. Debaraj shared his experience on working in different themes across various countries. He highlighted the issues in rural areas across these themes and the initiatives taken up by him to address those, especially in the area of climate change and climate smart agriculture. Through various examples like using drones with thermal sensor to detect sick animals in a large herd of cattle or geo tagging, he emphasized the importance of understanding the context specific problems and working on solutions accordingly. Mr. Debraj also shared his experience of initiating and working with young professions in livelihoods missions and establishment of the academic institution, Development Management Institute (DMI) in Bihar. He suggested the students to work in the grassroots to develop a basic understanding of the development sector. It is this experience which has helped him to gain confidence and has taken him to different places including the World Bank. He concluded by emphasizing that hard work is key to success and perseverance, dedication and devotion are key essential elements to attain success in the development sector.
