Agriculture

Bhubaneswar, Nov 29 (LocalWire): The economic condition of farmers in the state could only be transformed by effective use of modern technology.

Minister for Food Supply and Consumer Welfare, Ranendra Pratap Swain while addressing a workshop on ‘Agri start-ups role of innovation and technology in cooperative development’ here today said ‘technology is often used by the state and cooperative department for the benefit of farmers and entrepreneurs and it should also use more prominently in future to serve the cause of farmers at large.’

Among others, chief general manager, NABARD, Bhubaneswar, A Chandrasekhar, secretary, National Council for Cooperative Training, New Delhi, Mohan Kumar Mishra and Director of the institute S Ghosh spoke on this occasion.

The workshop recommended infrastructural development for Agri start-ups to facilitate agri entrepreneurs, FPOs and cooperatives to face the challenges of production, processing, marketing, retaining skilled manpower and making farmers aware of agri start-up activities, technological adoption and innovations used in modern day agricultural practices.

LocalWire

Bhubaneswar, November 28 (LocalWire): One year after its launch, the Agriculture Production Cluster (APC) has emerged as a powerful vehicle for enhancing farm incomes of women farmers in Odisha’s highlands.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, a group of 30 farmers has successfully cultivated 30 beds of tomato in over 20 acres of land at Sadar Block in Keonjhar under the APC program.

This was revealed at the agriculture department meeting with delegates from the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) at Krushibhawan on Wednesday.

The meeting was chaired by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment principal secretary Dr. Saurabh Garg and was attended by the directors of agriculture and horticulture, officers from the allied sector and other stakeholders.

Sharing information about the project, the department Tweeted from its official handle Krushibibhaga_Odisha:

“Under the Agriculture Production Cluster Program, 30 farmers of Community nursery have cultivated 20 acres in 30 beds of Tomato, Producer Group: Dhatika, Sadar Block, Keonjhar.”

The meeting focused on investment in post-harvest management and infrastructures like aggregation, storage, primary and secondary processing, including agri-logistics, and cold chain management.

The meeting also deliberated on how to engage and invite large scale investors in India to export products from the agriculture and allied sectors.

Project APC, a multi-stakeholder partnership initiative of the state government, was launched by the chief minister Naveen Patnaik on 6 November 2018.

The scheme was launched to raise income of over one lakh farmers across 40 blocks in 10 tribal districts by facilitating them to practice market-linked agriculture, with focus on horticulture crops.

LocalWire

Bhubaneswar,Nov 24 (LocalWire): Odisha government has decided to clamp restrictions on the use of Paraquat dichloride and glyphosate pesticidest, two highly hazardous pesticides, across the State.

The hazardous pesticides are having a debilitating effect on farmers’ health, causing cancer, kidney, liver and lung ailments. Demands have been raised often from various quarters to ban the herbicides as there is no known antidote to it yet.

The state agriculture and farmers’ empowerment department has asked the district level authorities of agriculture departments to keep a tab on its sale.

‘We have decided to regulate the sale of Paraquat as a prelude to its complete ban,’ said a senior official.

The agriculture department will launch an awareness drive to sensitize farmers on the pesticide-induced health issues.

Use of Paraquat dichloride and glyphosate will not be encouraged in government demonstration and subsidized sales”, the directorate letter said.

A group of senior resident doctors in government-run Veer Surendra Sai Medical College and Hospital in Burla, Sambalpur district, had protested by going hungry for a day on 13 September.

The resident doctors’ had also petitioned to the Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee and had raised the issues of acute and chronic health problems due to paraquat exposure as it claimed 170 human lives in the state in last two years.

A group of lawyers had also called upon Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to clamp ban on the use of paraquat.

LocalWire

Bhubaneswar, Nov 19 (LocalWire): The state government today disallowed the proposal for commercial cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purpose.

‘An inter-departmental decision was taken not to go ahead with such activities,’ Sushil Kumar Lohani, the state’s excise secretary said here today.

Some pharmaceutical companies had sought assured supply of cannabis by government agencies by saying that it could be used as non-narcotic medicinal and nutritive products. They had cited the instances of other state governments who had permitted hemp cultivation, he said.

The government had sought law department’s opinion on it and the legality of allowing its cultivation.

However, the proposal was rejected outright with the law department saying that it’s not within the legal parameters to accord legal sanction for cannabis cultivation, the official said.

Eight districts – Kandhamal, Boudh, Deogarh, Sambalpur, Rayagada, Gajapati, Malkangiriand Nayagarh – are widely regarded as the epicentre of hemp or cannabis cultivation.

11,627.244 acres of land where hemp was planted, was destroyed last year. The government has set the target of destroying 8,000 acres of hemp plantation in 2019-20.

Hemp cultivation has emerged as a money-minting source of income. The poor living by the forest-side villages are often ensnared by middlemen and agents of drug-smuggling rackets. They are encouraged and funded to cultivate hemp by the racket.

With return from the hemp being more than 100-fold more than that of paddy cultivation, the poorer sections fall into the trap.

The yield from an acre of paddy cultivation will at best give annual return of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000, while the return from hemp will be as high as Rs 10 lakh.

LocalWire