Industry Odisha Bureau, Aug 29: The Odisha government on Friday signed three MoUs with the Department of Posts, Odisha Circle, ICRISAT and the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in order to strengthen and improve farmers’ incomes.
Deputy Chief Minister KV Singh Deo said the partnerships will focus on digital agriculture, better seed systems, climate resilient farming, nutrition and farmer livelihoods.
Under the agreement with the Department of Posts, Gramin Dak Sevaks will help farmers in rural and remote areas access digital agriculture services. These include AgriStack registration, Farmer Registry enrolment, Farmer ID generation, CM KISAN registration, PM KISAN e-KYC and NPCI/Aadhar seeding.
The partnership with ICRISAT will support projects under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. The focus will be on seed systems for pulses and oilseeds, chickpea seed production and speed breeding. These efforts will help develop improved and climate resilient crop varieties.
MSSRF will implement a three year project covering 3,000 small and marginal farmers in Nayagarh district. The project will promote biofortified crops, pulses, vegetables, backyard poultry and aquaculture. It will also support seed banks, nutrition gardens and community processing units.
