‘KALIA’ to remain flagship scheme for the next five years

To actualize the vast untapped potential of the State’s agriculture, strengthen the economic and social well-being of farmers, sharecroppers, and landless laborers while ensuring the growth process environmentally, economically and technologically inclusive, scalable and sustainable, the Odisha Government has released a draft Agricultural Policy of Odisha-2019.

Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo said the policy aims to strengthen the economic and social wellbeing of farmers, sharecroppers, and landless

laborers.”The policy is focused on farmers’ well-being and is formulated to build on the inherent strengths of its agriculture and allied sectors, to address the constraints it faces and to make optimal use of resources and opportunities emerging on account of advancement in technology,” Sahoo said.

The state had last time rolled out its agricultural policy in 2013 which helped the sector in many ways, the minister said, adding that the state has become a surplus producer of food grains by producing 117 lakh MT of food grains in 2016-17.

He also claimed that the state has achieved the fastest growth rate in the country in enhancing the monthly income of the farmers between 2002-03 and 2015-16. During this period, the monthly average income of Odisha farmer has increased from Rs 1,062 to Rs 7,731 indicating a growth of 16.5 percent against the national growth of 11.7 percent.

On the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (Kalia) scheme launched in December 2018, the policy suggests that it be extended for another five years. Earlier, the scheme was planned for only five crops. Under the scheme, the small and marginal farmers get financial assistance of Rs 5,000 per crop and some benefits for sharecroppers and landless agriculture farmers.

The draft policy deals with sector-specific strategy on eight points like leveraging science and technology, adoption to climate change, markets, higher productivity, infrastructure, diversification, skilling, and strengthening institutions.
The draft policy mentioned that 48 percent of laborers in Odisha are female. There are an estimated 50,000 single landless women in the state and they will be treated as a special target group for development intervention.

“Farmers who are able to transform their livelihoods successfully using KALIA will be identified and duly rewarded o a yearly basis. High performing officials at all levels of hierarchy will also be duly recognized,” Sahoo said.

The Government of Odisha announced its first agricultural policy in 1996. Subsequently, policies were announced in 2008 and 2013. Back in 2008, the State Government acknowledged the centrality of farmers’ welfare in its vision for agriculture. It not only identified ways to improve production and productivity but also focused on activities to improve farmer well-being.

This focus was on further thrust in the 2013 Policy where enhancing incomes of farmers became the central theme. The current policy builds on that and aims to give an economic, social, technological and political thrust to promoting farmers as producers, entrepreneurs, and innovators.”