In one of India’s poorest districts, a team of scientists from premier central government institutes have joined hands to help farmers find new life — and hope.
“They are helping me improve farming,” says Krishna Chandra Nayak, 35, standing amidst his seven acres in Saruguda village. And his calculations on a writing pad tell a story of economic revolution through scientific inputs in agriculture.
Nayak is one of 5,000 farmers in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district, chosen and mentored under a project called ‘Farm-Based S&T Interventions for Socioeconomic Development’ being jointly implemented by 12 central R&D institutes and an 18-member district-level committee of the state government.
The project is being run under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) on a budget of over Rs 6.5 crore over two years. The farmers were chosen through rigorous field visits across the district to select those who could take the risk of switching from traditional crops to high-value crops — and were willing to accept new methods.
The institutes involved are mentoring a diverse group of farmers.
Farmers are also being helped to grow Citronella, which yields an essential oil that is used in insect and especially mosquito repellents, while palmarosa oil is an ingredient in soaps and cosmetics.
Read this encouraging report in a story by Sampad Patnaik published in The Indian Express... (Link given below)
