The Odisha Cashew Processors’ Association held a two-day national-level meeting of cashew processors and conducted a national level seminar here on the concluding day on Sunday. Over 450 delegates from different parts of the country attended the event.
Odisha is the country’s third largest cashew-growing State with 1.70 lakh hectares of land under cashew production and employment of more than 30,000 workers every day, out of which 90 per cent are women.
The seminar was held on theme “Boosting Cashew Productions in India”. Speaking at the meeting, BJP leader and former Assembly Deputy Speaker Assembly Rama Chandra Panda urged the State Government to treat agriculture as industry and provide necessary incentives to cashew growers at par with the industry.
The massive waste lands in the coastal areas should be developed for cashew plantation, for which both the Union and State Governments should chalk out a time-bound programme, Panda said. He also urged the Government to provide necessary assistance to cashew growers during natural calamities at par with growers of other crops.
Another speaker Congress MlA Tara Prasad Bahinipati alleged gross negligence to the agro sector and called for united efforts by the cashew growers and processors in the State to ventilate their grievances to the authorities from time to time.
Odisha Cashew Producers’ Association president Rajendra Sabat presided over the meeting.
Director of Industries Nityananda Pallai called upon cashew producers to invest in Odisha to avail the benefits of the myriad incentives which the State Government is planning to provide to cashew growers and processors.
Among others, the Director Ministry of Small Scale Industry (MSME) and Deputy Director of National Horticulture of Board of India Bani Singh and association general secretary Sudhakar Bhola and advisor Jagan Mohan Panda also spoke.