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Friday, January 22, 2010

State Farmers Commission (SFC) - Orissa

Agriculture is the major contributor to Orissa's economy. Agriculture is the chief occupation in Orissa. About 76% of the total working population is engaged with agriculture and agriculture related industries. The total cropped area in Orissa is 87,46,000 Hectares and out of that 18,79,000 Hectares are under irrigation.
Orissa is one of the largest producers of rice in India. The state grows almost one tenth of the total rice production of the country. In spite of a comfortable paddy production in the state, production of oilseeds and other commercial crops is not very encouraging. The economic conditions of the farmers has been ruined by an array of factors, like climate change, soil erosion, dryness and acidity of soil and falling ground water level. Besides the farmers are indebted and farmers committed suicides in recent years.

Keeping in view the impact on the farm sector of the state , Govt. of Orissa has constituted a State Farmers’ Commission (SFC) under the chairmanship of SM Patnaik. This was declared by Orissa's cabinet minister for agriculture and fisheries Damodar Rout.

Other members of the commission are Niranjan Panda, the renowned soil scientist and the chairman of the Western Orissa Development Council (WODC), economist and the president of the State Finance Commission Dr Sudhakar Panda and D P Ray, vice-chancellor, OUAT. Besides the State Famermer commission has been empowered to add members by inducting experts from within the state and outside.

Objectives & Functions of State farmers Commission:
  1. To review the status of the state’s agriculture, performance, strength and weakness, assess the condition of different categories of farmers in various agro-climatic zones.
  2. To work out a comprehensive strategy for achieving sustainable and equitable agriculture development of the state.
  3. To analyse factors responsible for low farm income and suggest measures to enhance income of the farmers, crop diversification, improved marketing, value addition and agro-processing.
  4. To recommend measures for stepping up investment in agriculture and allied sectors and promotion of public-private-partnerships (PPP). Simultaneously, efforts would be made for harnessing information technology in agriculture.
  5. To analyze the reasons for rural indebtedness which is often cited as the reason for the recent spate of suicides by the farmers in the state.
  6. To examine land tenure and land ownership system and other agrarian problems pertaining to increasing productivity and rural income.
The Commission would submit its report to the government within six
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