BHUBANESWAR: Barely three months after the flagship Kalia scheme helped BJD Government sail through Elections 2019, the State is all set to introduce a new agriculture policy to address the constraints faced by the sector and make optimal use of resources and opportunities emerging on account of advancement in technology.
This will be the fourth policy to be implemented by the State Government in the last 25 years. While the first agricultural policy was announced in 1996, subsequent policies were implemented in 2008 and 2013.
The Odisha Agricultural Policy 2019 aims to actualise untapped potential and strengthen the economic and social well-being of farmers, sharecroppers and landless labourers in a sustainable manner while ensuring nutritional security.
The draft policy has proposed to continue the Kalia scheme for five years. The scheme earlier mandated an unconditional cash transfer of `5,000 per crop to every small and marginal farmer, sharecropper and landless labourers’ bank account for five crop seasons.
An Agriculture Department official said as per the provisions in the new policy, regular monitoring and evaluation of Kalia scheme on key performance indicators will be conducted.
“A third-party evaluation system will be introduced to assess impact on Kalia beneficiaries and suggest fine-tuning of the scheme. While a project management unit will be set up to manage internal and external communication and programme objectives, farmers who are able to transform their livelihoods successfully using the scheme will be identified and duly rewarded on a yearly basis,” he informed.
Since close to 83 per cent of the State’s population live in rural areas and about 61.8 per cent of its 17.5 million workforce is employed in agriculture, the new policy intends to give economical, technological and political thrust in a bid to promote farmers as producers, entrepreneurs and innovators.
Though an average Odisha farmer’s monthly income grew seven times from `1,062 in 2002-03 to `7,731 in 2015-16, the new policy aims at making the income sustainable.
The policy has special provisions for women who constitute nearly 48 per cent of all labourers in the State. Of 21 lakh agricultural labourers, nine lakh are women and 18 pc of all cultivators are women. There are an estimated five lakh single landless women who will be treated as a special target group for development intervention.
The Government will encourage low-risk-low-reward agriculture or assured market options for single woman households and small and marginal farmers. More equitable product and service delivery mechanism will be created for women farmers and more women agriculturists will be trained and placed in the state agricultural extension system.
While 30 pc of horticulture and small livestock scheme budgets will be dedicated to women, efforts will be to get women friendly farm equipment designed, produced and promoted.
The draft policy also focuses on crop specific interventions, research and innovation, land and water management, service-support mechanism for farm machines, market linkage and infrastructure, agricultural extension and skill building, livestock and fisheries besides transformation in governance.