Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government today signed two important agreements (memorandum of understanding) for enhancing the income of the famers in our State and also to promote agriculture entrepreneurship.
While an agreement was signed between the Agricultural Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited (APICOL) and PRADAN, another was signed between APICOL and CSC-SPV for successful implementation of Mukhyamantri Krushi Udyog Yojana (MKUY).
Talking to media on the occasion, Odisha Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo said, “The farmers of Odisha’s tribal-dominated 40 blocks can now avail information. Our aim is to increase agri-entrepreneurship so that the income of our farmers will get increased or doubled.”
“The first MoU has been signed with PRADAN and the second one with CSC as they would open unit at every panchayat and pass on information as well as do registration and various other activities. So, our APICOL has signed two MoUs with these two agencies. This will immensely benefit our farmers,” he observed.
Agriculture Production Commissioner Pradipta Mohapatra said, “Extremely happy for these two MoUs. It will benefit our farmers very much. The first MoU has been signed with an NGO. It will help in the promotion of agri-entrepreneurship in 40 tribal blocks. The second MoU is to see that the farmers get themselves registered into the Mukhyamantri Krushi Udyog Yojana. Farmers across the State can also register themselves through the Common Service Centre (CSC) so that they can register for various services.”
APICOL MD Subhrendu Sekhar Dey said, “APICOL has signed two MoUs today. First MoU is with PRADAN for Agriculture Entrepreneurship Scheme. This is for the 40 tribal-dominated blocks. 1000 agri-entrepreneurs will be selected, imparted training and they will establish an agri enterprise. Each agri-entrepreneur will provide all help and facilities to 200-250 local and nearby farmers.”
He informed, “It may be manure, fertilizer, pesticide. If one opts for nursery or seedling or poultry or fishery or she-goat farming, all sorts of assistance will be provided by the agri-entrepreneurs. Finally, the farmers will also be provided with market linkage. They will also do aggregation of the production of the farmers, clusterization and market linkage so that the farmers could get reasonable rate for their produce.”
“The second MoU is with CSC-SPV. It is Common Service Centre. The Mukhyamantri Krushi Udyog Yojana (MKUY), launched on 01.06.2018, is online and transparent. We have observed that the farmers of our rural belt are ignorant of how to apply for their agri-enterprise for which our motto is not being served. Hence, there are more than 16000 CSCs across the State. These CSCs will help those farmers in the online process for registration and also impart training at the block level,” the APICOL MD further informed.
As per a press note released on the occasion, the first MoU was inked by APICOL MD and PRADAN Executive Director N. Damodaran on Agriculture Entrepreneurship Promotion Scheme (AEPS).
Objectives:
• The scheme will operate in 40 tribal dominated blocks in 12 districts on a pilot basis to promote entrepreneurial ventures at grass root level.
• Farmer producer organizations (FPOs)/Farmer Interest Groups (FIGs) / Small & Marginal Farmers (S&MF) in their locality will be assisted by the AE for increasing farmers’ income through enhanced production and productivity measures in Agriculture & allied sectors.
• In the process, each Agricultural Entrepreneur (AE) would cater to more than 200 farmers to a cluster of 4-5 villages and act as one stop resource / solution provider for them in the locality so that it will benefit around 2 lakh small and marginal farmers to augment their income in coming 3 years.
• Additionally some AEs will also provide services for livestock rearing and fisheries where ever possible to augment farmer’s livelihood.
The second MoU was signed by APICOL MD and State Coordinator Swarnoprabha Singh of CSC e-Governance Services India Limited (CSC-SPV), a Government of India Company for successful implementation of Mukhyamantri Krushi Udyog Yojana (MKUY) with an aim to establish more number of Commercial Agri Enterprises in the State.
Objectives:
• Assistance to farmers / agri-entrepreneurs through Common Service Centers (CSCs) in the filling up of online registration process for Farmers / agri-entrepreneurs including uploading and viewing 0f documents in the web portal www.apicol.nic.in @ cost of Rs 32 per farmer / agri-entrepreneurs. CSC SPV will make a mobile app/dashboard for monitoring the activities of CSC.
• CSC will train its Operators / Agri-entrepreneurs / Village Level Agriculture officials on online process of MKUY.
Prominent among others, Odisha Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment (A&FE) Secretary Saurabh Garg, A&FE Director M. Muthukumar and Horticulture Director B.K. Upadhyay were present in the MoU signing ceremony.
