Bhubaneswar, June 8: Odisha Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra on Tuesday approved a micro-irrigation action plan of around Rs 531 crore for 2022-23 for the promotion of vegetables, pulses, oilseeds, and fruits.
Presiding over State Level Sanctioning Committee on Micro Irrigation held in digital mode, the Chief Secretary said the fund would be invested for the promotion of vegetables, pulses, oilseeds, coconut and plantation of fruit species over one lakh hector high and medium land with micro-irrigation sprinkler, drip HDPE pipe and pump sets methods of irrigation.
During 2021-22 around Rs 62 crore was invested in promoting sprinkler and drip methods of irrigation. He directed to make a detailed study on the production and requirement of the fruits and vegetables like mango, guava, papaya, lemon, onion and tomato in the State and asked the department of horticulture to enhance the production of these crops through an action plan, and popularization of micro-irrigation for meeting the internal market demand.
The department was also asked to work in tandem with the water resources department for intensifying micro-irrigation interventions in ayacut areas of different irrigation projects. Mahapatra asked the horticulture directorate to promote sprinkler, drip and HDPE pipe schemes among the farmers having their land near bore well, deep-well and minor irrigation points.
Special Secretary Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Sanjeeb Chadha said the cluster approach was adopted for the promotion of banana, guava and papaya in Barhargh, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Bolangir, Kalahandi, Rayagada, Gajapati, Angul, Dhenkanal, Deogarh, Boudh, Jajpur and Nayagarh. A total of around 1015 hectares in these districts were brought under such fruit crops in 2021-22.
Target was fixed to promote these crops in more than 1260 hectares during the current year.
During 2021-22 around Rs 62 crore was invested for prompting sprinkler and drip methods of irrigation with the outcome of 31,038 hectares of medium and high land being brought under irrigation. Sprinkler irrigation was found more popular among the farmers.
