Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Tuesday said the state government has been targeting to bring two lakh hectares of land in the state under organic farming in the next five years.
Speaking at the Agri Business Investment session in the Make in Odisha conclave, the Chief Minister launched the Odisha Organic Farming Policy and claimed to achieve the target as per the base set by the policy, which envisions to boosting the sustainable mode of farming in the state.
The Chief Minister said, “I am happy to have released Odisha Organic Farming Policy today. We are targeting to cover over two lakh hectares in the state under organic farming within the next five years.”
To mark the mega event, he also launched the Agri Entrepreneurship Promotion Scheme besides ensuring signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Seeds Corporation for production of high quality seeds in the state.
On the state policies and wooing the potential investors, the CM said, “I am happy to release the Agri Entrepreneurship Promotion Scheme. I hope over the next few years thousands of agri-entrepreneurs would be working to provide the necessary services to the farmers. I am sure many investors would also come forward to take advantage of our attractive MSME and Food Processing Policies.”
The CM also expressed happiness over the signing of a MoU with the NABARD for the formation of Farmer Producer Organisations to collectively leverage their production and marketing strength. Since 2013, Odisha has a separate agriculture budget and a specially carved out agri-cabinet to have more focus on the sector. It also introduced the State Agricultural Policy 2013.
“Development of agriculture and farmers’ empowerment are among the top priorities of my government. Our focused attentions on this sector especially the small and marginal farmers have shown results,” the CM told the gathering of investors, entrepreneurs and experts from the agriculture industries sector.