Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, June 19: The state government will set up 150 cold storage units with a combined capacity of 7.47lakh tonnes across Orissa by 2019. Aimed at giving a fillip to the agricultural sector by helping farmers store their produce, the cold storage units will be developed under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to review the performance of the agriculture department as well as the fisheries and animal resources department (F&ARD) at the Secretariat Friday.
“It has been decided to set up 150 cold storages in PPP mode with a capacity of 7,47,280 tonne,” said agriculture and F&ARD minister Pradeep Maharathi after attending the meeting.
“The Chief Minister has decided that he will review the progress of this work once every two months,” Maharathi added.
The minister informed that the state government has decided to cultivate nine lakh tonnes of vegetables from 5,000 hectares of land every year using advanced methods of cultivation to increase farm output in the state.
During the meeting, Patnaik asked officials to ensure timely supply of seeds to farmers. While the state government has so far appointed dealers in 4,346 gram panchayats for proper supply of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to farmers, the CM directed officials to appoint such dealers in all panchayats by 2017.
Agriculture officials have been asked to fill 1,017 vacant posts of agricultural technical extension officers by the end of this year. For proper conservation of post-harvested paddy, Patnaik asked officials at the meeting to complete construction of concrete paddy-drying yards by 2017. He asked the secretaries of agriculture, cooperation, revenue and panchayati raj departments to coordinate between themselves for proper implementation of the project.
The CM also asked officials to include all farmers’ families in the Biju Krushak Kalyan Yojana (BKKY) by August this year under which 55lakh farmers’ families have been registered till date. He also asked officials to ensure direct credit of subsidy amount and financial assistance to farmers’ bank accounts and implement a scheme for supply of water to farmers in drought-prone areas.