Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday inaugurated the five-day State-level agriculture expo ‘Krushi Odisha-2021’.
Addressing the gathering through video-conferencing the Chief Minister said “I am proud of our farmers and their achievements. Odisha farmers are in no way inferior to anyone. I have always stood with farmers and shall continue doing so.”
Stating that his government has always worked towards ensuring farmers get appropriate value for their produce Naveen said, his focus has always been to ensure that farmers get remunerative prices for their produce, make fertilizers, seeds and loan assistance available.
The Chief Minister said, till today over Rs 20,000 crore has been made available to farmers in form of loans and recently Rs 1,272 crore was provided as assistance under KALIA scheme.
Talking about minimum support price (MSP), he said “Our fight for increasing MSP is on and shall continue.” He requested farmers to avail benefits under various schemes of the government and use new technology while stressing on crop diversification to boost income.
Praising the farmers for working even during COVID, Naveen said “You all know that Corona has hit the country’s economy hard but our farm sector has worked hard and strengthened it.”
He requested the farmers to get themselves vaccinated against COVID-19 under the vaccination programme.
The Millet Mission started by Odisha has drawn the attention of the entire country and fish farming by Kalahandi farmers has ranked first in the country, he informed the crowd with pride.
The event is being jointly sponsored by the Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Department and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
The theme for this year is ‘Integrated Farming – Towards Farmers Prosperity’. krushi Odisha Focus is on innovations and best practices in agriculture, food processing and allied sectors aimed at making it more remunerative for farmers.
A total of 160 stalls have been set up at the expo in which around 500 farmers are participating.
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