By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 23, 2015 :

Rice productivity in Odisha has gone up to 23.61 quintals per hectare thanks to ‘Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGERI) programme launched by the union government, a review meeting on BGREI held here revealed.

Presiding over the State Level Coordination Committee Meeting on BGREI, chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati advised the officers to give emphasis on pretreatment of seeds, line showing, integrated manure and pest management during the coming Khariff season.

The agriculture department has also been asked to cover the flood prone areas with flood resistant varieties like swarna- sub and drought prone up lands with high tolerant verities of paddy seeds.

The BGERI was launched in Odisha from the year 2011-12. Now, the programme is being implemented in 16 districts namely Balasore, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Khurda, Kandhamal, Puri, Kalahandi, Koraput, Rayagada, Saharanpur.

In 2013-14, there was a budgetary outlay of Rs 199.30 crore for programmes like crop demonstration, asset building like supply of pump sets, transplanter, functioning of lift irrigation [LI] points, construction of community threshing floor, development of firm-cum-fish pond and supply of paddy seed cleaner-cum-grader.

Similarly, in 2014-15 around 100% achievement has been made in the interventions like crop demonstration, asset building, catering to site specific need and providing marketing support with utilization of Rs 17,821 lakhs. As a result of these interventions rice productivity has increased to 23.61 quintals per hectare, the review revealed. Line showing and line transplanting practice has proved to be less labour intensive and less prone to pest occurrence. It has facilitated uniform application of fertilizer and easy weeding for which returns per has been higher.

For the current fiscal, some new interventions like demonstration in clusters, cropping based training and site specific activities have been included Pati has directed to include pre treatment of seeds, line showing, integrated manure and paste management trainings to farmers in the action plan. Pati also directed the officials to strengthen and enhance the support for post-harvest management and marketing.

It has been decided to constitute a State Steering Committee under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary, Agriculture for finalization of action plan and regular review of the progress. No allocation for 2015-16 has been received so far. However, a tentative estimate of around 18000 lakhs has been prepared for the current year, an official release said.

Principal Secretary Agriculture Rajesh Verma, Director Agriculture P. Meherda and other officials were present during the discussion.