Odisha mulls incentives for farmers switching to non-paddy crops 

The Odisha government is mulling incentives for farmers switching from paddy to non-paddy crops. 

Informing about the plan, Agriculture Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain on Tuesday said, "Despite the cut in the Central budget, the allocation for agriculture in the State will increase. Crop diversification is the main objective. While Millet Mission programme is active in 19 districts, in coming days all the 30 districts will be covered. 

“Floriculture, spices and mushroom missions will also be introduced,” informed the Minister. 

“We are encouraging farmers to take up non-paddy crops. They can grow for example Millet.  Under Millet Mission, Odisha is the only State where we are providing minimum support price (MSP). Our Chief Minister has announced that no stone will be left unturned to improve farmers’ financial condition. Then the farmers will live happily,” added the Minister.

Prinicipal Secretary of Agriculture Department, Arabinda Padhee said, “For last so many years, we have been producing over 4 MT paddy.  We should diversify from paddy crop to non-paddy crops. We can take up pulses. Our department is laying emphasis on high value agricultural crops.  Acting on the direction of the Chief Minister, we have recently announced some new missions. While we have already launched, jackfruit mission, we are going to announce three new missions like floriculture, spices and mushroom missions.”

(Reported by Bibartan Panda, OTV)