Bhubaneswar: The state agriculture department Saturday signed 7 MoUs to increase quality seed production, diversification of crop, handholding to landless farmers to enhance their livelihood, and promotion of up agro-industries,
An MoU was signed with the Dwara Trust to give handholding to the landless farmers in the State. The Trust will provide modern technical know-how to the farmers starting from sourcing seed, arranging bank loans to harvesting and marketing. On pilot basis, the Trust will work in 5 districts of the State.
The government has signed a long-term tripartite agreement with Hindustan Insecticide Ltd.(HIL) and NAFED to reduce the gap between demand for the seed and production of seed in the State. The HIL will produce 5,000 quintal paddy seed in Kalahandi and Bhadrak, 2,000 quintal green gram seed in Khorda and Nayagarh, 200 quintal arhar seed in Rayagada, 100 quintal peas in Gajapati and 100 quintal til in Ganjam district.
Similarly, NAFED will produce 7,500 quintal of groundnut seed in Ganjam, 4,500 green gram in Bolangir, 9,000 quintal and 6,000 quintal paddy seed in Jharsuguda and Deogarh districts respectively.
The three-year tripartite-agreement, which starts from 2019-20, aims at making the State self-sufficient in seed production.
The MoU with (APICOL) aims at promoting 800 agro-based industries in the State with a subsidy of Rs 60 crore in 2019-20. Similarly, the MoU with Agro-Industries Corporation is aims at achieving a business of Rs 467.11 crore during the current fiscal.
The Cashew Corporation will increase its revenue to Rs 28 crore from the present Rs 24 crore.
The Odisha minister for agriclture, Arun Sahoo, agriculture production commissioner Gagan Kumar Dhal and agriculture principal secretary Sourav Garg and agriculture director M. Muthukumar were present when the MoUs papers were singed.
