Posts filed under ‘Agriculture’
Narasingha demands agriculture university in Balangir
Following is a report from the https://www.telegraphindia.com:
Balangir: Local MLA and leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra has slammed the state government for not responding to the long-standing demand of the local people for the establishment of an agriculture university here.
Talking to newspersons here on Sunday evening, Mishra said that the state government had taken a decision in 2014 to set up an agriculture university in the Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi (KBK) region. Ever since, the people of Balangir have been demanding that the agriculture university be set up in Balangir.
“The people of Balangir have been demanding the agriculture university for the last four years. I have also personally supported the demand and have contributed my bit,” he said. Mishra said that several local outfits have hit the street demanding the agriculture university. “At various times, the local people have launched protest drives demanding the university here. But the government is not responding to the demands of the people,” he said.
Mishra said he had written to chief minister Naveen Patnaik on June 28 requesting him to take up the project at the earliest. “I have written to the chief minister recently to honour the demand of the people of Balangir and take steps to set up the university here,” he said.
Mishra said that he had also requested the chief minister to set up a government engineering college in the region. “Balangir doesn’t have any government engineering college. I have requested the government to set up an engineering college here,” he said.
He has also urged upon the government to take over the Balangir Law College. “There is no government law college anywhere in Odisha. The law college here has adequate infrastructure. It is high time the government takes it over so that it becomes the state’s first government law college,” he said.
Odisha approves a parboiled rice mill and co-generation biomass power plant at Kalahandi
Following report is from: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/economy/odisha-approves-two-projects-worth-rs-470-crore_4996221.html#discontent_div
Odisha’s State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) accorded in-principle approval to two investment proposals worth Rs 470 crore. The SLSWCA meeting chaired by Chief Secretary A P Padhi approved a proposal of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) to set up a common user facility (CUF) for storage of petroleum products at Meramunduli in Dhenkanal district at an investment of Rs 270 crore, said Kalyan Mohanty, General Manager of Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha (IPICOL).
It also approved a proposal of Starlight Energy Limited to set up an integrated grain based distillery unit along with a parboiled rice mill and co-generation biomass power plant at Goud Sariguda in Kalahandi district with a total investment of Rs 137 crore. The CUF project is a common arrangement of IOC L, BPCL and HPCL and will cater to receipt and storage of petroleum products like petrol, diesel, kerosene, fuel oil, light diesel and high performance petrol, he said.
Mohanty added that the project will require 90 acres of land, 3 KL/day water and 450 KW of power and provide direct and contractual employment to around 344 people. Starlight Energy’s project requires 195 acres and 1 MW power as stand by for start-up of the biomass power plant. It will use broken rice from rice mills, besides maize and other grains produced in Odisha for the distillery unit, while husk from the rice mills will be used as principal raw material for production of biomass power. It will produce neutral alcohol for medicine, ethanol for blending in petrol and anhydrous alcohol for industrial use and provide direct and contractual employment to 108 people, Mohanty added.
Farmers’ suicide cases spread throughout western Odisha
Following is a report from the http://www.orissadiary.com
Report by Debadatta Panda , Kalahandi: Farmers suicide case occurring in western Odisha like Bargarh,Sambalpur,Nuapada districts due to heavy loan and loss of crops.Like that in Kalahandi a farmers suicided by hanging in his cropland in the Koksara Block of Kalahandi.Though Kalahandi is irrigated by Upper Indravati Irrigation Project but the Up Land area known as Dandpat area is not irrigated by UIIP.
Secondly serial draught situation attract the local people for the migrant labour work. Bira Majhi aged about 55 years of Dhanpur village in Koksara Block of Kalahandi has suicided b y hanging himself.It is known that BIra was a small farmer having two acres of land as his paternal property and by cultivating that he was managing his family.He has given marriage to his two daughters and sent his two sons as migrant labourer for income and he was planning to repay his all of the loan made for the marriage and cultivation from the crop income .
But on the draught situation the crop is going to be damaged the crop is to be damaged and his dream is to be smashes and Bira became mentally pressurised as told by the family mambers. As told by the wife of the deceased Bira,on the day of occurance Bira went to his crop land after his morning day to day work in a normal mind and at ten o clock they informed that Bira suicided on a Nimb tree at his cropland. Koksara police came to the spot and inquest the dead body and hand over to the family. But the family members as well as the villagers came to the NH26 at Koksara and demonstrated a Dharana demanding more help to the Bira”s family. Koksara Tahasildar and ABDO came to the demonstrators and assured them to provide all govt assistances to the deceased then the demonstration was called up.
The farmers suicide cases spread throughout the western Odisha and now occurred in Kalahandi.It is anot a good symbol for the farmers said the intellectuals.Govt should take remarkable steps for the welfare of the farmers, demanded by the farmers organisations.
Farmer suicide in western Odisha and the callous state
Saket Sreebhushan Sahu
Suicides reports of fourteen farmers from Western Odisha within a fortnight have gripped the whole region in shock and grief. Politician donot bothered about it because it is not an election time. Neither had we heard any sympathetic words from the agriculture minister in any media.
The culture, economy and society of Western Odisha have evolved by build-up with a cohesive bonding affiliating to agriculture since time immemorial. Western Odisha is based on an agrarian economy. If harvesting of crop is good, farming community thinks about marriages in the family. If crop harvesting is not as per expectation, they postponed marriages. All the major festivals like Nuankhai and Phuspuni are agrarian. While Nuankhai is the festival of first crop cutting and offering it to the God/Godess, Phuspuni is the harvesting festival. Today, Nuankhai is celebrated even in foreign countries and major metros of India by the non-residents. But the man behind the Nuankhai and Phuspuni festival, the farmers, is living in an unspeakable pathos and insurmountable grief.
The state government has all kind of schemes for all categories of people but none are in use; all government schemes are as if meant for the thekadar and chamcha of the ruling political party.
The Government collects huge revenue from this region, almost 75 per cent. But never works for the tax payer. The farming community who filled the state treasury is abandoned like anything. Farmers are deprived of their basic rights. They are neglected. If a state is not meant for its subjects then the subjects have to introspect about the state. Time has arrived.
Author Comments on Politics and Culture. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own.
AU urges CM to set up an agriculture university in Balangir district
Following is a report from TNIE:
BHUBANESWAR : Rajya Sabha member AU Singhdeo has urged Defence Minister Arun Jaitely to use the Ordnance Factory at Balangir’s Badmal for augmenting production of Pinaka rockets.
Since a major consideration for choosing location of production facilities is availability of land, the Badmal ordnance factory fits the bill. The facility has 12,200 acres of land of which 5,000 acres is lying unused, he said in a letter to the Defence Minister.
The Centre has sanctioned capacity expansion of Pinaka rockets from 1,000 rockets a year to 5,000. Currently, two new variants of the rocket are undergoing evaluation and upon successful completion of the assessment, the requirement would go up to 12,000 rockets annually.
Since Pinaka and Smerch rockets are being inducted by Indian Army, their production will be taken up by ordnance factories.
Instead of taking up capacity expansion in a piecemeal manner, Singhdeo suggested, the whole exercise should be taken up in one go. This would eliminate duplication of facilities and reduction of costs.
The senior BJD leader who represents Balangir said it is one of the most backward regions in the country and apart from the ordnance factory there has been no major investment by the Centre in the district. If the capacity expansion is taken up, it would boost the district’s economic activity.
In a separate letter, the Rajya Sabha member has requested Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take steps for setting up an agriculture university in Balangir.
“Odisha, having just one Agriculture University, needs at least one more. The BJD manifesto promises to set up an agri-university in KBK districts. Balangir, representing the backward and western Odisha districts, is the most suitable place for a second university,” he said adding, in terms of technical education infrastructure, Balangir has no academic institute as yet.
Following is a report from the Sambad:
Sundargarh to revive potato, onion cultivation
Following is a report from the TNIE:
ROURKELA: Smarting under trader manipulated market which swings vegetable prices in either ways, the Sundargarh district administration has launched fresh attempts to boost local production of potato and onion.
The farmers in the tribal-dominated district had abandoned potato and onion cultivation almost 25 years back due to lack of storage facilities. Sources said the move comes after the district having a total population of above 21 lakhs was affected by steep hike in prices of the two staple vegetables recently.
Deputy Director of Horticulture (DDH) Basudev Sahu said about 210 hectares (ha) of land having sandy loam soil across 17 blocks of the district have been taken up for potato farming. Shortly, 4,200 quintals of seeds would be supplied and cultivation activities are expected to start from first week of September.
He said each hectare would require 20 quintals of seed and after 105 to 120 days of farming, the district would be able to harvest about 42,000 quintals of potato. About 20 ha with loamy soil will be taken up for onion cultivation and 20 quintals of seeds have reached seedling stage, he added.
Sahu said transplantation of onion seedlings would begin by mid-September. By December, the district would be able to harvest 3,000 quintals of onion with each hectare producing between 150 and 200 quintals.
On the flip side, the farmers may face trouble in case of bumper harvest as the district lacks Government-owned cold storage facilities. The administration pins hope on a private cold storage at Rourkela.
Seven new cold chamber facilities with combined capacity of 65 tonnes in Nuagaon and Bisra blocks have been lying defunct in absence of three-phase power connection. At the Zilla Parishad meeting on Wednesday, Sundargarh Collector Bhupendra Singh Poonia asked WESCO officials to ensure power supply to the facilities at the earliest.
Agriculture officials admitted that potential farmers of Panposh and Bonai sub-divisions had abandoned potato and onion farming 25 years back, the reasons being closure of two Government-owned cold storages at Kuanrmunda and Rajmunda.
According to a marketing intelligence officer, Rourkela city needs around 600 quintals of potato and 200 quintals of onion on daily basis. While bulk of the tuber comes from West Bengal and the rest from Uttar Pradesh, Nasik in Maharashtra supplies onion.
Civil Supplies Officer (CSO) Abhiram Pradhan claimed that the district’s daily requirement of potato is around 1600 quintals and 600 quintals of onion. The department is keeping a close watch on the price of the two items.
A wholesaler Arun Prasad welcomed the district administration’s move towards gaining self-sufficiency in potato and onion production.
Kosal Discussion and Development Forum 