Odisha Govt. Signs Agreement to Promote Agriculture Enterprises in Tribal Districts

Odisha Government has signed two agreements with an NGO of national repute & a Central Government agency to promote agricultural enterprises in tribal regions and provide services to farmers via common service centres.

The Agricultural Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited or APICOL & Professional Assistance for Development Action or PRADAN, a national-level NGO, inked an accord for implementation of agriculture entrepreneurship promotion scheme (AEPS) in the tribal selected blocks of the State.

Arun Kumar Sahoo, Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister said, “The scheme will run in 40 tribal blocks of 12 districts on a pilot basis to endorse entrepreneurial ventures at grassroots level. Farmers’ producer organisation or FPOs, farmers interest groups or FIGs & small and marginal farmers would be assisted by an agricultural entrepreneur for increasing farmers’ income through improved production as well as productivity measures”.

As many as 1000 agri-entrepreneurs will be chosen, imparted training & establish an agri based enterprise. Every agri-entrepreneur (AE) will cater to 200 local growers in a cluster of 4 to 5 villages & act as one stop solution provider in the area. This will be beneficial to around 2 lakh small & marginal farmers to enhance their income in 3 years, he told.

The agri-entrepreneurs will also provide services for livestock rearing & fisheries wherever possible to improve farmers livelihood.

The 2nd MoU was signed with CSC e-Governance Services India Limited or CSC-SPV - a Central Government body, for implementation of Mukhyamantri Krushi Udyog Yojana (MKUY) that was launched on 1 June, 2018.

Help or assistance to farmers/agri-entrepreneurs through the Common Service Centres in filling up of online registration that includes uploading & viewing of documents in www.apicol.nic.in will be available at a cost of 32 / registration. The Central agency will launch a mobile app or dashboard for monitoring the activities of CSC.