Indicating that the upcoming agriculture budget of Odisha will focus on reducing farmers' vulnerability to natural calamities, the agriculture cabinet committee today directed allied departments to enhance allocations for the betterment of farming sector in the state.
"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.
"The budget will also focus on reducing farmers vulnerability to natural calamities, provision of credits and agriculture inputs in time, improving agriculture production and productivity by laying emphasis on the modern farm technology and development of fisheries and animal husbandry sector," he said.
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.
Patnaik said the state government has changed the name of agriculture department to the department of agriculture and farmers empowerment.
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.
