Bhubaneswar: In a landmark development that will have direct economic impact on thousands of small farmers of Puri and Ganjam Districts, the Government of Odisha has taken a decision to include the Betel vine cultivators and Kewda farmers in the financial assistance program under the special state schemes.
On the instructions of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, 5T Secretary VK Pandian had visited Puri and Ganjam districts and interacted with the local Betel vine cultivators and Kewda farmers and received a number of their grievances.
A review meeting was held today to discuss these issues at the Chief Minister’s Office. According to the decisions taken at the meeting, all the betel vine cultivators will be included in the special state scheme and given financial assistance. Farmers having at least 200 square meters of vine yard will be elegible for getting the financial assistance. The Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment will prepare a special guideline for this.
The betel vine farmers will be given Rs 2500 per unit financial assistance for running of the vine yards. A farmer can take financial assistance for maximum two number of units. Massive awareness will be created about the interest free loan of Rs 1 lakh to the betel vine farmers through Kisan Credit Cards. Also, a clarification will be sought from the GST commissioner regarding GST on the business of Betel leaves. The betel leaves processing units will be included in the Mukhya Mantri Krushi Udyog Yojana for subsidy assistance. For this, IPICOL will prepare a Detailed Project Report.
Likewise, the Kewda flower farmers of Ganjam district will also be given assistance under the National Horticulture mission. Along with the Horticulture Mission, additional assistance will be given out of the state budget. The assistance will be given by carrying out scientific mapping of the Kewda farms.
Assistance for the loss of Kewda cultivation due to natural calamities will be given assistance according to the report of the District Collector. All modalities will be made by the Ganjam District Collector and the Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Department in this regard. All necessary changes will be made in the scheme guidelines to include the Kewda processing units under the Mukhya Mantri Krushi Udyog Yojana.
A decision has also been taken to take the assistance of OUAT or any other agriculture research institute of national repute to give technical help to Kewda farming in Ganjam.
The meeting was attended by 5T Secretary VK Pandian, Development Commissioner Anu Garg, Principal Secretary, Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Department Arabinda Padhee, and Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Cooperation Department Aravind Agarwal.