Ganjam Admin Takes up Bund Plantation to Revive Rural Economy amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Berhampur: With a bid to revive the rural economy amid the adverse impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, the Ganjam administration has decided to take up ‘Bund Plantation’ project to provide job opportunities to people in the district.

The project aims at providing employment opportunities to the people, especially the migrants and other affected jobseekers in the rural areas during the pandemic.

The district administration has planned massive plantation drive in every village during the ensuring monsoon season with the active involvement of four departments, such as Panchayati Raj, Soil Conservation, Horticulture, Agriculture and Odisha Livelihood Mission.

The objective of the project is to ensure livelihood of farmers by promoting natural resource management and to achieve two lakhs persons day generation daily during the rainy season.
Through this project, the district administration is planning to provide a source of income to the farmers in long run and increase the crop yield without expanding the area of the farm land.

It also seeks to reduce the import of coconut from other States.

Talking about the project, Ganjam PD DRDA Shinde Dattatraya Bhausaheb said that the district administration has planned more than 12.5 lakh coconut tree plantation under the project with an aim to generate over one crore mandays.

The Bund Plantation project is individual projects which will ensure 5T principle and sustainability with maximum survival rate.

The project, which will be implemented by departments such as Forest, Horticulture and OLM, is expected to benefit 1,25,750 persons during the 2021-22 financial year, according to the district administration.
A total of 125750 plants will be planted during the 2021-22 fiscal.

For the better monitoring and supervision of the bund plantation activity at grassroot level, the officials of five departments – Horticulture, Agriculture, Soil conservation, PR&DW and Mission Shakti have been engaged.

Meanwhile, Ganjam Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange has lauded the initiative of the DFDA and said that the administration is taking all possible steps to revive the rural economy, affected by the pandemic.