BHUBANESWAR: The State government has adopted a three-pronged strategy to ensure agricultural growth and multiply farmers’ income, Principal Secretary of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment department Suresh Kumar Vashishth said.
Addressing an event on input management of rabi crop for farmer producer organisations (FPOs) at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, here, Vashishth said the focus now is on small and marginal farmers to encourage them to diversity and go for high value and climate-resilient crops. “Farmers are being motivated for crop diversification and integrated farming while promoting farm ponds so that they can take up pisciculture along with horticulture,” he said.
Odisha’s cultivation pattern was heavily tilted towards paddy with the crop claiming 70 per cent of the agricultural land while the rest 30 per cent of the cultivable area was under cereals, pulses, oilseeds and other crops. “We are surplus in paddy but deficit in pulses and oilseeds,” he said.
An MoU was signed between Livelihood Alternatives and Dhanuka Agritech Ltd on the occasion for ensuring farmers have easy access to agricultural inputs.