Armed With Surplus Paddy, Odisha Set To Diversify Into High Value Crops

Bhubaneswar: Having achieved surplus paddy production, Odisha is now all set to speed up crop diversification and promote high value pulses, oilseeds, millets, horticulture and plantation activities which can be more remunerative.

This was revealed at a technical presentation on “Crop diversification: Taking to the next level” during the ongoing Senior Officers’ Conference. The presentation as made among others by Prinvipal Secretary of Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment department Arabinda K Padhee, Kalahandi Collector Anvesha Reddy and Balasore Collector Dattatreya Shinde.

It was noted that the state cabinet has recently approved a new scheme titled, Crop Diversification Programme to promote non- paddy and other high value crops cultivation in all 30 districts of the state. The government has already approved allocation of Rs 2808 crores for promotion of millets for 6 yrs till 2026-27.

The technical session focused on the arc of development of agriculture policy, its achievements, challenges and prospects for the future. Though spectacular success was achieved by green revolution, it led to negative externalities such as degraded agricultural lands, depletion of ground water, loss of soil fertility, loss of biodiversity, etc. Overall, all these led to a weakened resilience to climate change. This has further exacerbated with diminishing natural resources and high levels of malnutrition leading to intergenerational problems.

To counter the trend, the team spoke about different types of adaptation strategies that can be taken up. Out of these strategies, switch to different crop types and shift in cropping area is seen as a transformational strategy for adaptation to climate change. In the context of Odisha, this means promotion of non-paddy crops.

Through use of statistics, the team shared that there is more than 40 lakh tonne surplus of paddy, even after meeting the rice consumption requirements of the state. This allows for diversification to other crops such as pulses, oilseeds, millets, horticulture, plantations, etc.

The presentation showcased the example of Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) as a successful model for crop diversification.  OMM has showed that fork to farm approach is suitable framework for reviving millets in farms and plates. Creating awareness through celebration of Mandia Dibasa and engagement with all stakeholders of the value chain has brought tremendous grassroots transformation. Building on these successful experiences of OMM, a theory of change and behavior transformation strategy was developed for crop diversification through assessment of farmers goals and enabling and disenabling factors, gaps analysis in functional diversity leading to selection of on-farm crop diversification options. Concurrent evaluation and learning and improvement is a key part of this theory of change for crop diversification.

The team of officials shared that through this approach with focus on mega lift irrigation projects (MLIP) and rainfed areas, the Agriculture department aims to expand area under pulses to more than 27 lakh Ha, oilseeds to more than 15 lakh Ha, millets to more than 6.5 lakh Ha, horticulture plantations to 0.62 lakh Ha, vegetable cultivation to 0.44 lakh Ha, spices to 0.28 lakh ha in next 5 to 7 yrs. Department of Agriculture expects that Odisha will be surplus state in all commodities apart from oilseeds in next 5 to 7 yrs. In addition, mission mode approach shall be taken up to promote jackfruit, mushroom, floriculture, spices etc.

In addition to crop specific interventions, the officials also stressed the importance of integration of schemes such as Farm Pond Plus and Integrated farming, etc. Initial intervention by the Department on integrating agriculture, horticulture, livestock and fisheries activities on the farm pond assets created using MGNREGA has shown very good results. Farm Pond Plus is a model initiative where different department schemes are converged for integrated farming.