BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government will soon roll out a new Agroforestry Policy to push forward its commitment to decarbonisation and also to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Minister for Forest, Environment and Climate Change Ganesh Ram Singkhuntia on Saturday said ‘Agroforestry Policy 2025’ will be implemented after it is approved by the government. “The policy will help us improve green cover, reduce carbon footprint and achieve the SDG in the long term. Both farmers and communities residing in forest fringe areas will be benefitted from it,” he told this paper.
The government has earmarked about Rs 2,000 crore for implementation of various projects over a period of 12 years under the new policy to realise its objectives. “Community participation in adopting sustainable practices will be one of the focused area of the policy,” he said.
The draft Agroforestry Policy has already been placed with the government for its approval, while consultations are taking place with the Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment department for adaptation of both the farmers as well as the communities residing in forest fringe areas. The Forest department will be the nodal agency for implementation.
The proposed policy will be rolled out in line with the National Agroforestry Policy to achieve the goal of reduced carbon emission and SDGs by promoting environment sustainability, biodiversity conservation and climate action, all of which are beneficial for community well-being. The policy will also help government increase carbon sequestration through agroforestry practices.
The policy, sources said, will promote crop diversification and guide adoption of different models of agroforestry for different agro-climatic zones. It will also guide the government in securing end-to-end buyback system for the farmers and reduce dependency of communities residing in forest fringe areas on forest produce.
With the policy, the government hopes to promote carbon financing mechanism that assigns a financial value to carbon emissions, allowing businesses and individuals to offset their individual emission by purchasing carbon credits generated from sustainable projects.
As per a report of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), Odisha accounts for about 9.3 per cent of the net greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of the country. In per capita terms, net emission from Odisha standing at 6.15 tonne CO2e is higher than that of the national average of 2.24 tCO2e. And in the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, the per capita emission is expected to rise five-fold to 31.41 tCO2e by 2050.
In January this year, the state had announced to develop a net-zero carbon emission roadmap to give push to India’s ambitious goal of decarbonisation by 2070.
The state has also made significant progress in its SDG performance, especially in areas like climate action and life below water, and implemented initiatives like a Climate Budget and a dedicated SDG Budget, in the recent years.