Odisha Govt exempts Fruits & Vegetables from RMC Fees
Bhubaneswar, May 29: In another step towards promoting horticulture and vegetable cultivation in the State, Govt has exempted fruits and vegetables from RMC fees. This has been discussed in the State Level Agriculture Task force meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sri Gokul Chandra Pati in secretariat conference hall today. Sri Pati has directed the Cooperative department to issue guidelines to all the field level officers and spread the message to the farmers through wide publicity. The meeting deliberated over the issues relating to rejuvenation of agriculture in the State.
Considering the suggestions received from different quarters and recommendations of the agriculture scientists, Chief Secretary Sri Pati has advised the department to focus on technology transfer to the farmers. The department has been advised to popularize scientific methods and cost effective technologies through progressive farmers, participatory field demonstration and service extension entrepreneurship. Sri Pati has advised to promote agricultural service extension as an enterprise by involving progressive farmers, agriculture graduates, farmers associations, and SHGs etc.
OUAT has been directed to work out area specific plans for water use in irrigated areas involving the pani panchayts. Such intervention, said Chief Secretary Sri Pati, will lead to more productivity and reduce the consumption of water. The meeting deliberated on popularization of the innovative technologies like ‘zero tillage’, Paira cropping, un-puddled transplanting, low cost and more efficient agricultural implements, post harvest machines, crop specific processing units, automatic cleaning, weighing and bagging systems, mixed crop etc.
Experts opined that ‘zero tillage’ technology would reduce the cost of production to the tune of Rs.2500/- per hect by doing away with tillage operations. The farmer will also save time and can plant 15 days earlier than usual tilling methods. Zero tillage method utilizes the available moisture level of the soil for planting. Similarly, the method of ‘unpuddled transplanting’ reduces the cost of production to the tune of Rs.1700/- per hect. These cost effective methods will be more helpful for small and marginal farmers who constitute 86% of the farming community. It may be pertinent to mention that 65% of State’s population depends on agriculture and gross cropped area of the State is around 90.54 lakh hect. Available data shows because of strategic interventions, the productivity in sugar cane during 2013-14 has increased to 71980 kg per hect against national average of 69838 kg per hect. Similarly, the productivity in rice has increased to 1821 kg per hect., cereals to 1837 kg per hect, pulses to 507 kg per hect., oil seeds to 928 kg , fibre crops to 576 kg., vegetables to 13915 kg and productivity of spices has increased to 3149 kg per hect.
Principal Secretary Water Resources, Sri Pradeep Kumar Jena, Principal Secretary Cooperation Sri Manoj Ahuja, Secretary MS & ME Sri Panchanana Das, Director Agriculture Sri Pramod Meherda, Registrar Cooperative Societies Sri Dhiren Pattanik Vice Chancellor OUAT along with senior agricultural scientists and officers from concerned departments participated in deliberations.