Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Agriculture education gets a boost

Expressbuzz, March 23, 2011
BHUBANESWAR: The Government today announced setting up of one agriculture polytechnic in each of the 10 agro-climatic zones of the State.


Replying to the demand discussion on Agriculture, Cooperation and Fisheries and Animal Resources Department Minister Damodar Rout said two such polytechnics opened at Boudh and Deogarh with assistance from the Western Orissa Development Council fund have started functioning from the current academic session.

The proposed polytechnics have received concurrence of the Finance Department. Construction work of the institutes will start shortly after finalisation of the locations. The objective of opening more polytechnics is to expand education on agriculture.

Admitting that agriculture extension services have suffered due to staff shortage, the Minister said a dedicated machinery will be put in place for the extension works.

There will be a statelevel coordinator to monitor the overall extension works, while each district will have project director research (PDR) and two deputy PDRs under the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA).

At the block level, there will be a block technology manager and two subject matter specialists, while a farmer friend will be posted at the village level. Each farmer friend will be in charge of two villages and he will assist the farmers by extending all the programmes of the Government. The farmer friend will be given an annual remuneration of Rs 4,000.

Dismissing the opposition charges that the Government has failed to protect interest of the farmers, the Minister said despite vagaries of nature the State has maintained its food surplus status. Even as Bargarh district suffered 50 per cent crop loss due to insufficient rain and another 70 per cent to unseasonal rain, it has recorded a surplus paddy production of over one lakh tonne compared to the last kharif season.

Asserting that there is no shortage of fund, the Minister said the orientation of the farmers needed to be changed. The farmers need to be sensitised and encouraged to make a shift from the traditional to scientific farming. The Government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 1,167.97 crore for 201112 as against Rs 648.72 crore in last fiscal, he added.

Initiating the discussion, Anup Sai of the Congress said the State was at the bottom of the list so far as agriculture production is concerned. This is because of continuous neglect to the farm sector by the Naveen Patnaik Government for 11 years.

While many farmers are committing suicide due to crop loss and increasing loan burden, the Government is not ready to accept the fact and take corrective measures.

Sai attributed the low farm production of the State to low irrigation facility. While the Government has not been able to redeem its promise to provide irrigation to at least 35 per cent of agriculture land in each block, fertiliser consumption in the State is one of the lowest in the country, he rued.

Senior BJD leader Pradip Maharathy provided some valuable suggestions to the Government for value addition to farm production.

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