In a move towards opening new avenues for paddy farmers in Odisha, an interactive session with different stakeholders for promoting rice export from the State was held recently in digital mode under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra from the State Lokseba Bhawan.
Principal Advisor to Chief Minister and Chairman of Western Odisha Development Council Asit Tripathy along with senior officers from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) of India, agricultural scientists and rice exporters participated in deliberations.
Considering the paddy production potential of Odisha’s agro-climatic zones, existence of huge genetic diversity of aromatic germplasm, traditional skill of the farmers and availability of port facilities for foreign trading, the Chief Secretary directed to “create conducive ecosystem for boosting up the export of non-basmati aromatic rice from Odisha”.
Asit Tripathy said, “Odisha as a rice-surplus State has bumper availability for export. There are also rice aggregators who can be trained and mobilised towards export-oriented operations.” He advised the APEDA and the State Directorate of Agriculture to organise ground-level workshops with rice aggregators, food exporters and farmer producer organisations to infuse confidence in farming community for production of export-quality paddy.
The Chief Secretary further directed to adopt cluster approach in promotion of the non-basmati aromatic verities of paddy cultivation. He also asked to identify the agro-climatic zones more suitable for cultivation of such varieties. He said, “Government of Odisha is committed to enhance farmers’ income by boosting the rice export; and the State will provide all possible support for the purpose.”
Mahapatra also asked the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment to constitute a resource team for boosting the rice export.
It was decided that the team would visit Andhra Pradesh for gaining exposure to the actual practices adopted in export of non-basmati aromatic verities. The Chief Secretary directed the department to frame a realistic work plan with the suggestions from technical session of the seminar and inputs from the resource team so that those could be carried forward.
The requirements like establishment of a laboratory network, creation of a rice warehouse at the Paradip Port, creation of awareness about Indian and global food practices among the farmers, extension of necessary agri-inputs and technical support to the farmers for production of the non-basmati aromatic paddy, etc., were also discussed in the meeting.
Additional Chief Secretary and Agriculture Production Commissioner Sanjeev Chopra, APEDA Director Dr Angumuthu and Principal Secretary Food Supplies, Consumer Welfare Vir Vikram Yadav and Rice Exporters. Association President VV Rao participated in the deliberations.
