BHUBANESWAR: In a move to raise on-farm productivity, production and marketable volumes of selected agricultural commodities in specified geographic clusters, particularly highlands, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday launched a special programme for promotion of agriculture production clusters (APCs) in tribal regions of the State.
“The project will trigger growth in farm sector with an objective of doubling the income of one lakh small and marginal farmers by establishing agriculture production clusters in 40 blocks of 12 tribal-dominated districts over a period of four years,” Naveen said.
Around 150 farmers will be organised into one producer group (PG), who will be facilitated to practice synchronised market-linked production of identified crops especially horticulture crops covering around 40 acres in a contiguous manner.
Similarly, 20-25 PGs having 3,000 to 5,000 farmers will be aggregated to form the Agriculture Production Cluster/Producers Company (PC) at appropriate level, said Sourav Garg, Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment.
The State Government plans to promote 30 producer companies in 40 blocks involving around 650 producer groups covering one lakh farmers. Around 750 market-linked agri-entrepreneurs will be groomed and nested as value chain enablers. The total cost of the project is Rs 401.6 crore.
This collaborative initiative of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment and Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Departments in partnership with Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF), an independent society under the Ministry of Rural Development and Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) aims at creating livelihood infrastructure for farmers in tribal regions by converging available schemes.
Livelihood assets like irrigation in 16,000 acres, orchard development in 8,000 acres, farm mechanisation access to 70,000 farmers and goat shed and backyard poultry with 30,000 farmers will be converged from existing schemes in this project to intensify government interventions, sources said.
While BRLF in partnership with other NGOs will support in mobilising community, strengthen producers institutions and support departments in implementing schemes, PRADAN will coordinate with other NGOs, develop implementation modalities and support the departments in design, management and monitoring the project.
The project cost will be shared by Agriculture department (Rs 293.4 crore), Odisha Livelihood Mission (Rs 70.06 crore), APICOL (Rs 17.8 crore) , BRLF (Rs 16.74 crore) and Rs 3.6 crore by participating NGOs.The Government signed an MoU with BRLF and PRADAN for the project
