"The agriculture cabinet committee on its first meeting today directed the departments of planning and convergence, finance, agriculture and farmers empowerment and allied departments to enhance the outlay of the agriculture budget," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said after presiding over the agriculture cabinet committee meeting.
Stating that the departments have been asked to bring about convergence in their activities, programmes and schemes, Patnaik said the focus of the agriculture budget, 2016-17 would be on increasing the area under irrigation and reduce the gap between irrigation potential available in the state and the actual area brought under irrigation.
Emphasis would be laid on marketing of agriculture produce and creation of storage and warehousing facilities for better harvest management of agriculture produces, Patnaik said.
Stating that his government was committed to ensure that farm household incomes were substantially enhanced through different initiatives, the Chief Minister claimed the state government has taken a historic step in setting up an agriculture cabinet committee to fast track the policy and decision making process for agriculture and allied sectors.
Besides Patnaik, ministers of finance, agriculture, fisheries and animal resources, cooperation, water resources, energy, food supplies and consumer welfare, SC and ST development, panchayati raj and revenue attended the first meeting of the agriculture cabinet committee.