A one-day workshop was convened in Alappuzha on September 24, 2018, as a second step in the preparation of ‘A special package for post flood Kuttanad’. Preparation of a package for Kuttanad required wide ranging consultations. Discussions with administrators and officials of all the implementing Departments concerned with the Kuttanad Package were crucial in such consultations.The workshop formed the platform for this wide ranging discussion.

Dr R Ramakumar, Member Agriculture, State Planning Board, led the discussion. Participants included the District Collector, Alappuzha, Sri G Venugopal, President, Alappuzha District Panchayat, Sri S S Nagesh, Chief Agriculture (SPB), District Planning Officer, officials from Agriculture Division (SPB) and officials from more than 10 line Departments like Agriculture, Irrigation, Kerala Agriculture University, PWD, Tourism, Soil survey and conservation, Fisheries, and Animal Husbandry. Sri E J James participated in this meeting as the external resource person.

The discussion focused on areas like analysis of impact of flood, reasons for high degree of losses, progress of implementation of existing schemes for Kuttanad, issues in the implementation of old package, suggestions to mitigate the problems, measures to improve co-ordination and strengthen programme implementation inKuttanad region, scope for various types of interventions etc. The points that emerged during the workshop contributed immensely to the formulation of the package for post flood Kuttanad.