Bhubaneswar: The Agricultural Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited (Apicol) and PRADAN Wednesday signed an for agriculture entrepreneurship promotion scheme (APES). The documents were signed by Apicol MD Dr. Subhrendu Sekhar Dey and PRADAN executive director N. Damodaran in the presence of agriculture minister Arun Kumar Sahu,agriculture production commissioner Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, agriculture principal secretary Sourav Garg, agriculture director M.Mwhukumar, director horticulture B.K.Upadhyay and Apicol chairman Pravaditya Mishra
The scheme will operate in 40 tribal dominated blocks in 12 districts on a pilot basis to promote entrepreneurial ventures at grass root level.
Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)/Farmer Interest and Marginal Farmers (S & MF) in their locality will be assisted by the AEPS for increasing farmers’ income through enhanced production and productivity measures in agriculture and allied sectors.
In the process, each Agricultural Entrepreneur (AE) would cater to more than 200 farmers in a cluster of 4-5 villages and act as one stop resource/solution provider for them in the locality so that it will benefit around 2 lakh small and marginal farmers to augment their income in coming 3 years.
Additionally some AES will also provide services for livestock rearing and fisheries where ever possible to augment farmer’s livelihood.
An MoU was signed between Apicol MD Dr. Subhrendu Sekhar Dey and State coordinator, CSC e-governance services India Ltd.(CSC-SPV) Sworna Prava Singh for implementation of Mukhamayntri Krushi Udyog Yojana (MKUY) with an aim to establish more number of commercial agri enterprises in the State,
