Bhubaneswar : Odisha government today constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary and Agriculture Production Commission Raj Kumar Sharma to prepare a target-specific time-bound work plan for up-scaling the fruit and vegetable production in the context of different agro-climatic zones of Odisha.
Presiding over a high-level meeting on the digital mode the Chief Secretary directed the officials to prepare the work plan in a couple of weeks reflecting the interventions required in terms of the agri-input, post-harvest management, cold storage and market linkage.
Mr Mohapatra asked the officials to prepare the plan with inputs from the experts, farmers and agri-entrepreneurs and list out the species which has higher potential in the state.
Development Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Jena advised focusing on the vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, potato and onion; and, the fruit species like papaya, banana, guava and lemon.
Official sources Odisha ranked first in the production of sweet potato, second in brinjal, fifth in watermelon, cauliflower, okra, tomato, and, sixth in bottle gourd at a national level as per ‘horticulture area production information system’ (HAPIS) reports 2019-20.
Similarly, in the fruits production category, Odisha ranked second, fifth in lemon, seventh in sapota, ninth in mango and ninth in jackfruit.
In the production of spices, Odisha ranked sixth in coriander, seventh in chilli, seventh in turmeric and eighth in garlic as per the reports of 2019-20.
Odisha ranked seventh in the production of vegetables and eleventh in the production of fruits as per the agri-crop report of 2019-20.
The total fruit production in Odisha touched 2482 thousand MT, vegetable production reached 9798 thousand MT, and spice production crossed 202 thousand MT.
Chief Secretary directed to choose the small number of these items in the first phase for more focused intervention. The department was also asked to conduct farmers’ training and orientation programmes about the modern technique of cultivation and yearly return from these non-paddy cash crops.
