India News | Odisha Govt Working to Bolster Agri-sector, Says Minister

Bhubaneswar, Aug 10 (PTI) The Odisha government is taking several steps to ensure better supply chain management in the agriculture sector with a focus on improving production, reducing food supply chain losses, and increasing farmers' income, state Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo said on Tuesday.

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Sahoo, also the Farmers' Empowerment, Fisheries, and the Animal Resources Development minister was speaking on ‘Odisha Agri Sector Logistics Challenges and Solutions' at an ASSOCHAM webinar.

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“Whether it is land allocation or adopting innovative practices for increased farm production, we have been actively engaging with the farmers to ensure their needs despite several issues like the occurrence of natural calamities, erratic monsoon, uneven distribution of rainfall,” an ASSOCHAM press release quoting the minister said.

Pointing out that agriculture production has increased over the years in Odisha and it is growing as a sector, Sahoo said, “We have witnessed that farmers' income has grown and it is much-much better than compared to some other states and is even better than the national average.”

Iterating that his government is committed to ushering in sustainable and inclusive growth in the agriculture sector, Sahoo said, “Samrudhi, our new agriculture policy aims to cash on the untapped potential of the state's agriculture sector while ensuring an environmentally, economically, and technologically inclusive growth”.

Asserting that agri logistics is the backbone of agri-business which enables connectivity between production and consumption centres, the minister said “Our department is promoting farmers-producers organisations (FPOs) and agriculture production clusters for holistic development in production, value addition, and organic market.”

Sharing his perspective, C Udayabhaskar, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Odisha, said that while the coastal state is a goldmine for horticulture, dairy, fisheries, oilseeds, and pulses, there is an urgent need to develop backward linkages, motivate the farmers, provide them with technical know-how and capacity building.

Highlighting various production-level issues that are needed to be resolved to wean away farmers from paddy and focus on other potential crops like banana, oilseeds, coconut, mango, and others, he said, unless these production-level issues are taken up, it will be very difficult to create a logical, viable agri logistics systems.

“For Odisha to become self-sufficient to produce in a particular scale, the state also needs to solve issues like lack of cold storage system which is a key part of Agri logistics,” the NABARD officer said.

The officer said there is a need to welcome the start-ups and have an incubation centre and suggested to redevelop and repair the Centre of Excellence in Khurda.

“It is not in a proper shape after the cyclone and requires redevelopment and repairs. We can develop it as a very good back house for exports and we also need to have commercial, cargo flights that can take this agri produce. Huge opportunities are waiting for Odisha,” he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)