Bhubaneswar, 18 September 2021( Odisha Samachar )– Krishi Vigyan Kendra-Khordha, Bhubaneswar, Odisha conducted two capacity building residential training programmes during 14-18 September for the rural schedule caste youths of Khordha district on ‘Scientific Dairy Farming’, and in association with Coir Board Regional Office, Bhubaneswar conducted ‘Coir Handicraft Preparation’. Dr. S.K. Swain, Director of ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar today graced the valedictory function of the trainings as the Chief Guest. He appreciated the initiatives taken by the KVK for capacity building of the rural youths in Covid-19 pandemic for their self-employment and assured the participants the technical support from the ICAR-CIFA. He also appreciated the cooperation of the Coir Board of India for the handholding in coir craft preparation. Sri Deshabandhu Das, Regional Officer of the Coir Board Regional Office, Bhubaneswar addressed the occasion as the Guest of Honour and appreciated the efforts of KVK for the rural livelihood development. He mentioned that his organisation looks forward for further cooperation with KVK in achieving broader goal of rural income generation through skill development programmes.Dr. S.S. Giri, Head of KVK-Khordha and Coordinator of the training programmes in his welcome addresshighlighted the objectives and scope of these capacity building trainings in empowering the rural schedule caste youths. Dr. B.K. Banja, SMS (Animal Science)was the Course Director of the ‘Scientific Dairy Farming’ training programme. Dr.Harapriya Nayak, SMS (Home Science) and SmtSukantiBehera, ACTO (Home Science) were the Course Directors of ‘Coir Handicraft Preparation’ training programme. Sri A.K. Das, SMS (Horticulture) informed that the expertise of the scientists of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, line-departments, private entrepreneurs and progressive farmers were drawn for the training and exposure visits of the youths. In each of these 5-days training programmes 10 schedule caste youths were participated, maintaining COVID-19 protocols.