Need To Promote Entrepreneurship In Agriculture Sector: CM

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday stressed the need to develop technology to promote entrepreneurship in agriculture and allied sectors.

Gracing the inauguration and foundation stone laying ceremony of different infrastructure projects of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) in Odisha capital, the Chief Minister said, “It has become a challenge to retain educated youth in the field of agriculture to sustain agricultural production in future. Besides, ugrading skills of farmers in application of agricultural technology and enhanced use of information technology has to be ensured.”

Expressing his happiness that OUAT has bagged a prestigious project of Rs 25 crore under National Agricultural Higher Education Project for improving quality education, Naveen said, I offer my thank to the ICAR, New Delhi, for selecting OUAT for this project. For this, the state government has also granted additional funds of Rs 56 crore as leverage. I urge the university to fully engage itself for proper branding by taking benefit of foreign exchange programme for improving faculty competence and skilling the students in curricula delivery relevant to farmers’ needs and market demand.”

On the occasion, the Chief Minister also inaugurated a slew of infrastructure projects of the university, including a hostel named Kamala Pujari Girls’ Hostel in Bhubaneswar and two more hostels (one for boys and another for girls) at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district through video conferencing.

Besides, he also laid the foundation stones of a teaching complex of College of Agriculture, Chiplima and a lab complex of College of Horticulture at Chiplima, among others.