Odisha Announces New Agri Policy ‘SAMRIDHI’ for Continuous Increase of Farmers’ Income

By B.Maharana

Bhubaneswar, December 18 :

Odisha Government has announced a new State Agricultural Policy 2019  ‘SAMRIDHI’ with the objective to ensure continuous growth in farmers’ income.

The new State Agricultural Policy was approved at  the cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Tuesday.

“The new state Agricultural Policy is focused on farmers’ well being  and formulated to build on the inherent strength 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  and the emergence of accelerated economic growth of the state and the country,” said the Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy after the Cabinet meeting.

Tripathy said the objective of the new agri-policy is to make the process  inclusive  of small and marginal cultivators  and to ensure sustainable , stable  and scalable agriculture growth.

He also said the policy focuses on creating an eco-system  interlinking  inputs production markets, sustainable  increase in yields of paddy and diversification  to high value agriculture (HVA)  and ensuring  efficient   and ecologically  sensitive  use of inputs.

The key components of SAMRIDHI is to achieve agriculture vision of Odisha to leverage  science and technology, adaptation to climate change, markets, physical and financial , spot and future .It also aims at creating appropriate infrastructure  , resource use efficiency ensuring higher productivity, diversification of production   to ‘high value agriculture”, human resource upgrading and skilling  and strengthening institutes.

he policy has dealt with  several sections including crop diversification , markets infrastructure , value chains and processing livestock and fisheries , research , development, extension , disaster management and insurance, Tripathy said.