OdishaPlus Bureau
- Cooperation and Banking day Celebrated on day 2 of Krushi Odisha
- eLicensing website and the user manual launched by Agriculture Minister Dr. Arun Kumar Sahoo
- Seminar on Climate Smart Technology Climate Smart Technology and Water Resources Management for Improved Productivity in Agriculture
- Seminar on Sustainable Solutions for Agriculture in India with Special Focus on Odisha
- Pathshala on Farm Mechanization & Micro Irrigation for Minimizing Production Cost
‘Krushi Odisha’, the annual flagship five day exhibition cum agri fair organized by Dept. of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Govt. of Odisha in collaboration with FICCI is being held from 20-24 January 2020 at Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar. The mega programme envisages leading farmers to profitability. Krushi Odisha takes into consideration various aspects of agriculture including farm income, implements, modern technology in farming, financial assistance to farmers and capacity building. The second day of Krushi Odisha is being celebrated as Cooperation and Banking Day.
The highlight of the day was Cooperation and Banking Day celebrated in the evening in presence of Dr. Arun Kumar Sahoo, Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Fisheries and Animal Resources Development and Higher Education, Govt. of Odisha. A user guide as well a website on e-Licensing for farmers was launched by the Govt. of Odisha on the occasion. The Hon’ble Minister said Krushi Odisha is an opportune platform for development and awareness of farmers in the state and the Naveen Patnaik led government is working tirelessly towards enhancing the farmers’ income. The eLicensing website launched today will immensely help our farmer brothers. Dr. Arun Kumar Sahoo had also had a visit to the exhibition and stalls.
Chief Guest of the occasion, Sri Ranendra Pratap Swain, Hon’ble Minister for Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, Co-operation invoked father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi while addressing the gathering. He said that Gandhiji was always talking about empowering the farmers. He then went on to say that discussions on farmer suicide mitigation and decreasing dependence on imports for potato and onions should be made at forums like Krushi Odisha. He extended full support of his department towards farmer welfare. He also pointed out that while farmers over the country are facing losses, the farmers in Odisha are seeing an upward trend in their income and lifestyle thanks to the farmer friendly policies of the state government.
The day consisted of two seminars and two pathshalas running parallel from 10AM to 1PM and 2-5 PM respectively. The first seminar of the day was on Climate Smart Technology and Water Resources Management for Improved Productivity in Agriculture. The session was moderated by Mr. Tapan Padhy- Director of Water and Forestry Programme, RCDC.
Mr. JK Rath Chairman, FICCI MSME Committee, Odisha, introduced the panel to the audience which included Mr. Tapan Padhy- Director of Water and Forestry Programme, RCDC, Mr. Anjan Mandal Chief of Sales and Marketing Sky Met Weather, Dr. Sangita Ladha, VP Marketing and Business Development, Jain Irrigation and Pushpendra Johari, Sr. VP, RMSI Noida.
Tapan Padhy – Director of Water and Forestry Programme, RCDC discussed how climate change has outsmarted all of us and suggested the ways and means of carrying out sustainable agriculture in the time of climate change. Similarly, Mr. Anjan Mandal, Chief of Sales and Marketing,Sky Met Weather focused on forecasting technologies for agriculture supply chain management. He elaborated on the Sky Mitra app developed by Sky Met weather which helps in giving local farmers advance weather forecast in seven languages like English, Hindi, Gujrati, Marathi, Telugu, Odia and Punjabi. He also informed that SkyMet has put up than 7000 Automated Weather Stations(AWS) across the country while over 100 AWS are located in Odisha in Bhadrak, Balasore and Ganjam districts.
Dr. SangitaLadha, VP Marketing and Business Development, Jain Irrigation is an M.Tech from IIT Kharagpur. She delved on the issues of greenhouse technology and precision farming. She displayed a video where her team planted a grapevine across 600 hectares of desert in Israel by using drip irrigation methods.
The first pathshala of the day was on Farm Mechanization & Micro Irrigation for Minimizing Production Cost. The pathshala enlightened the audience on important facts like Odisha uses power tillers more than any other state in the country. The pathshala lay stress on the fact that in order to increase production, we have to increase usage of farm machine tools from existing 40 percent to a more advanced 90 percent like the USA.
The second seminar of the day was on the topic: Sustainable Solutions for Agriculture in India with Special Focus on Odisha. Dr. M. Muthukumar, Director Agriculture and Food Production, Govt. of Odisha was present on the occasion. He said that Industrialization and Urbanization have led to loss of farmland. He also pointed out Odisha has achieved doubling of farm income but as we see, farm income has lessened whereas nonfarm income has increased.
Session moderator Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Director, National Rice Research Institute (NRRI)
welcomed everyone to the event from scientists to students and farmers. “In India,we have been cultivating paddy for the last 7000 years. It has become a part not only of our food but also our culture. Rice is not just a business, it’s our heritage. No social or community program is complete without rice and it forms a big part of society in Odisha, India and in fact the whole of Asia.
Dr. Arvind Kumar, Director, IRRI, International Rice Research Institute, South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) stressed the need of transforming food deficit Asia to a food secure one.
He also said“I don’t think there is a trade-off between sustainable agriculture and farmer’s profitability.”
Likewise, the second pathshala of the day focused on Risk in Agriculture- Management and Mitigation. The pathshala educated the farmers on mitigation of problems faced by them right from sowing seeds to harvesting their crop and the insurance policy of Govt. of Odisha. The day was concluded by a cultural programme which was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience.