Gajapati District’s SHG-Supervised Project Qualifies Semi-Finals of SKOCH Award 2020

Paralakhemundi: A farm pond project, supervised by the members of women self-help group in Odisha’s Gajapati district, got appreciation at the national level for promoting sustainable agriculture practices and generating employment opportunity in the district.

The project, which has been successfully implemented under the MGNREGS in 2019-20 by the Directorate of Soil Conservation and Watershed Development with the support of Dharitri SHG, has qualified the semi-finals of prestigious SKOCH Award 2020.

Excavation of farm pond has been taken in large scale in the district of Gajapati as per direction of Chief Minister in order to generate more and more mandays to provide livelihood support during Covid pandemic and at the same time it shall provide holistic round the year income to SHG group though fisheries and other animal husbandry activities, says Gajapati Collector Anupam Saha.

In order to create storage facility during rainy season with minimum investment and provide much-need irrigation to the marginal farmers, the pond project was carried out in Kinoda village of Laximpur gram panchayat in Rayagada block.

The farm pond was constructed by excavating the soil from the ground with an investment of Rs 60,000 to meet various farm needs such as supply of water for irrigation, cattle feed and fish production etc.

Besides benefiting the farmers, the project has created job opportunities for the unskilled laborers.

The project has enabled cultivation of 5 acre of land in Kinoda village. Several small and marginal farmers have been immensely benefited by the project. It has also generated 224 person days’ work for the year 2019-20, said Rabindra Kumar Sahu, Project Director, Watershed Gajapati.

In this farm pond, the farmers have done integrated farming system by using banana seedling, drumstick, cowpea, pineapple suckers and coconut seedlings along with fish farming.

Earlier, a NITI Aayog team had praised the Gajapati district administration for the farm pond project. The team visited Kinoda village to explore details about the project.

Apart from the farm pond project, Gajapati district has also bagged the SKOCH Order of Merit for Integrated Farming System & Value Addition under Rainfed Area Development (RAD).