Comprehensive District Annual Plan 2011-12 Balasore District

Comprehensive District Annual Plan 2011-12 Balasore District
6.1. CDAP
6.1.1. Crop Husbandry
CHAPTER VI
SECTORAL DISTRICT PLANS/SCHEMES
Agriculture and allied sectors are the main-stay of the district’s economy. It provides both
direct and indirect employment to the majority of the workforce (67%). The share of
agriculture in the district income is about 41% in the year 2001-02 which is more than the
state share in NSDP. In fact agriculture is the main source of livelihood of the population
supplemented by livestock rearing, fishery and horticulture. The district lack mineral and
forest resources. Hence, the rural population of the district mainly depends on agriculture,
fishery and other activities allied to agriculture for their livelihood.
The state government has declared new Agriculture Policy in the month of August 2008
with a view to transform the sector from its current status of subsistence agriculture to a
commercial proposition.
Major Objectives of the State Agricultural Policy 2008 are
• Increase in farm mechanization
• Soil testing and restoration of soil health
• Increase in Seed Replacement Ratio
• Increase in efficiency of irrigation
• Balanced fertilization and use of bio-fertilizers
• Strengthening agricultural research and education
• Increase in coverage of crops under insurance schemes
• Improvement in marketing
In conformity with the above objectives, the district has taken concerted effort to energize
the sector and make it profitable and more employable.
In the district Rice is the principal crop and area coverage is almost 91.69% in Kharif
season. But its productivity is much low (1.963 tons/ha) than state average (2.205
tons/ha). Because of this low productivity, even if the paddy coverage is much more, the
district has an annual surplus of only about 0.22 lakh tones of paddy (0.15 lakh tons of
rice) (2008-09 Directorate of Agriculture, Government of Orissa). The main reasons for such
a poor productivity are traditional methods of cultivation and frequent crop failure due to
natural calamities.
This low productivity coupled with high operational cost and frequent crop failure due to
natural calamities has created a negative perception in the mind of farmers of the district
towards agriculture. The youths are rarely interested to continue in this sort of nonremunerative
farming and prefer to migrate to nearby industrial belts, cities to earn
handsomely. Such an outward flow of potential workforce outside the district also has a
serious negative impact i.e. huge shortage of labourers for farming operations during peak
season. This is a major problem for the medium and large farmers who depend mostly on
hired labourers to carry out the farming operations. This situation is expected to improve to
some extent from this year onward because of the hike in minimum support price of food
grains declared by Government of India. More return to the farmers is expected to create a
positive perception in the mind of farmers towards cultivation.
Keeping the above facts in mind, the strategies planned for development of this lead sector
in the district are
TSI: NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS) 107