The NABARD here is organising a mango festival, an exhibition-cum-sale of carbide free mangoes from the orchards of tribal farmers from June 12 to 15 at its office here. The four-day exhibition-cum-sale was inaugurated by Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) R Balakrishnan on June 12. NABARD CGM SK Kale, Agriculture Principal Secretary Rajesh Verma, RBI RD PK Jena, SBI CGM KM Trivedi, SlBC Convenor BPSamantray and other dignitaries from State Government and banks were also present.
Popular varieties of garden fresh mangoes such as Amrapali, Baiganpalli, Totapuri, Alphonso, lengda, Dusheri, Sundari, Subarnarekha, Himsagar, Mallika and Neelam grown by tribal farmers under assistance of WADI Development Programme of NABARD have been displayed. Besides, other tribal produce like onion, pineapple, spices, turmeric, herbal tea, herbal medicine, honey, broom and cashew etc are also available for sale.
NABARD has been providing grant assistance for development of sustainable income generating activities among tribal farmers of Odisha, through its tribal development programme with WADI, a small orchard, as its core component. The WADI model of tribal development is holistic in approach addressing production, processing and marketing of produce and also other livelihood activities.
NABARD is implementing 47 WADI projects in 17 tribal dominated districts of the State spread over 35,560 acres of the tribal land covering more than 42,000 tribal families. The mango festival has been organized to provide an opportunity to the tribal families to exhibit and sell their horticulture / farm produce and interact with senior level Government functionaries and bankers.