Odisha is now among the top 10 States in agricultural production, including of cereals, fruits and vegetables, said Global Head for Rural livelihoods and Agricultural Jobs at World Bank Parmesh Saha while delivering the 13th lecture of the Odisha Knowledge Hub lecture series at the State Secretariat on Thursday.
He said because of a series of promotional interventions during last years, the State has been able to build all pre conditions required for growth and job creation in the agricultural sector. Now the State has become a land of bumper production. He suggested the administration to transform this bumper production base to entrepreneurship through setting up of more incubation centres and food processing clusters.
Saha said that globally around 21 per cent of jobs are created by the food processing and agri-processing sectors. He cited the examples of South Asian countries, Europe, France, Thailand and Holland, where the more jobs were created by transforming the bumper production to agricultural entrepreneurship. He held that growth of small and medium enterprises in the agricultural sector requires prior growth of multiple micro-entrepreneurs. These micro entrepreneurs along with the small and medium enterprises can generate a large number of job opportunities.
Now that Odisha has set a high production base, it could take off in creation of more jobs.
As per the suggestions made by the Secretaries and Collectors who participated in the talk, it was decided that a World Bank team would work with the State Government in transformation of producer groups to entrepreneurs.
Replying to a media query after the lecture, Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan said Saha spoke on how the non-cereal products of Odisha could get a world market and how production of mango, cashew, vegetables and fruits could be transformed to entrepreneurship for creation of more jobs in rural society. The State administration would have further engagement with World Bank groups for creation of more incubation facilities.