Bhubaneswar: In an attempt to raise farmers’ income through crop diversification, the state government has decided to promote agro-entrepreneurship among them in aromatic culture.
This was decided at a high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi here Friday.
Secretary of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Arun Kumar Panda, who was present at the meeting, assured all technical and knowledge support from Fragrance & Flavour Development Centre (FFDC), an autonomous institution working for research and development of aroma industry.
It was decided at the meeting that a pilot project would be undertaken in Ganjam district for assessing the outcome. It was targeted to start the first phase pilot programme next month involving around 400 farmers. The programme would be extended to other coastal and hilly regions of the state on the basis of the results the pilot project produces.
The Chief Secretary directed officials to provide appropriate support to the farmers, right from training to cultivation, distillation, quality assessment and marketing.
According to sources, a farmer can enhance his income by cultivating kerwa on boundary bunds of agricultural fields and palmarosa or vetiver in the middle depending on the type of land. The low and waterlogged fields are suitable for cultivation of vetiver and comparatively high land fields for palmarosa.
The farmer can harvest the crops within six to 12 months. Experts said that the income from cultivation of palmarosa would be around `35,000 and from vetiver `60,000 per acre. Apart from that, farmers could make money from kewra planted on boundaries of the fields.
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