Update from Feb 14 2023 call with Ajit Radhakrishnan
Focus of UP accelerator is agri water use efficiency; UP is the largest largest groundwater consumer, largest sugarcane and rice producer and has the least area under micro-irrigation
UP government wants to scale up sustainable rice production from 25k hectares today to 250k hectares (with a focus in Purvanchal)
Had a stakeholder workshop in early Feb and followup from that is for WRG to develop a “DSR (Direct Seeded Rice) Roadmap;” WB open to hearing from DG on how this can be done
Want to combine a basket of services to drive adoption which includes:
Advisory: WB wants to know what drives behavior change
Insurance: could be policies linked to germination or adverse weather (eg, parametric weather based product)
Access to quality inputs and services incl drip irrigation, improved seeds, nano fertilizers, seed drills, etc
WB sees a potential role for PACS and FPOs to provide a bundle of services to member farmers; I mentioned our FPO capacity building and comms + coordination work could be a fit here
IRRI and IARI will support MRV for the UP Accelerator; seems like carbon finance is not an immediate priority, will get layered in over time
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Sharing slides for a project being developed by World Bank WRG in UP.
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