Bhubaneswar: The supply of improved varieties of seeds to farmers by the Odisha government in the current Kharif season is underway.
The State government has supplied about 3.5 lakh quintal of paddy and non-paddy seeds through dealers and PACS in all districts by 10 July. Due to the late arrival of the monsoon in the State delay in the supply of seed has been observed which is likely to improve in the coming days and the target can be achieved by the end of July.
Principal Secretary Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Dr Arabinda Kumar Padhee said that the supply of seeds is continuing and the target is to supply more than 4 lakh quintals of seeds in the Kharif season.
Dr Padhee reviewed the supply of paddy and non-paddy seeds during the Kharif season at a meeting chaired by him at the Krushi Bhawan here today.
In the seeds supply process subsidy is being provided to farmers through DBT. To ensure complete transparency in the provision of subsidy, the subsidy amount is directly transferred to the farmer’s account through OTP. From the transparency point of view it is the best step, said Dr Padhee.
It is worth mentioning that in order to further simplify the OTP system for the benefit of farmers, OTP is being issued for ten farmers on one mobile number.
Subsidy on seeds is being given for a maximum of 3 hectares of farmland per farmer.
In this Kharif, a subsidy of Rs 1,250 per quintal is being provided for paddy seeds that are more than ten years old, while there is a subsidy of Rs 1,500 per quintal for paddy seeds that are less than ten years old.
Similarly, arrangements have been made to provide potato seeds to the farmers in Kharif and farmers are showing more interest in potato seeds in Kharif. So far, 40,000 quintals of certified potato seeds have been supplied to the farmers, which is more than the previous year’s Rabi season, Principal Secretary Dr Padhi said.
The meeting was attended by the Director of Agriculture and Food Production Prem Chandra Chaudhary, Director of Horticulture Rohit Kumar Lenka, Managing Director of Odisha State Seeds Corporation Bhabesh Kumar Naik and other senior officers of the department.
