Jagatsinghpur: Despite the fact that farmers in Jagatsinghpur district are enthusiastic about taking up cashew farming, nothing has been done to encourage them even after the Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation wrote a letter to the District Collector to take steps in this regard.
At a recent symposium on hybrid cashew farming at Sarada Mandap in the town, Chairman of Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation Amarendra Das informed this.
Expressing his concern about neglect of cashew farming in the district, Das said the corporation has cashew nurseries and fields in 20 districts. The corporation had requested the state government for setting up nurseries and fields in the left out 10 districts. Meanwhile, steps are being taken in this respect in all the districts barring Jagatsinghpur.
“Around 20 months have passed since the corporation wrote a letter to the District Collector, asking him to take steps to prepare a cashew nursery and fields in the district. Due to one or the other reason, the district administration is yet to identify lands.
Because of the delay, the corporation is not able to do anything to encourage the farmers, resulting in loss of opportunities,” he observed.
Referring to the huge gathering, he said it suggests people are interested to take up cashew farming. “We get Vitamin C from cashew nut. In fact, a single cashew nut is equal to 181 apples in respect of producing Vitamin C. High quality hybrid cashew plants yield more in less time. If compared, in a given year, a hybrid plant yields five times more fruits than a common plant does,” he informed.
On this occasion, people were made aware of the demand of cashew juice and the profit one could earn from the business.
The corporation felicitated two farmers of the locality-Prasanna Swain and Barada Prasad Ray. At the same time, the corporation distributed 600 cashew saplings and 2,500 juice packets among the farmers.
While personal assistance of the chairman Bhaskar Chandra Mohanty gave a vote of thanks, corporation’s MD Sadananda Nayak, Girija Shankar Pani, Bhagat Mohanty, Niranjan Behera and Pradeep Kumar Bal attended the symposium among others.
PNN
