___________

Following is an excerpt from a news report in Hindu.

Declaring 2008 as the "Year of Irrigation", Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday unfolded a Rs 2,000 crore package for the farmers assuring water to every agricultural field in the state.

"Water to all agricultural field will be our top priority during 2008," Patnaik told reporters, adding that a minimum of Rs five lakh would be spent for providing water to a village where 35 per cent of the agricultural land remained non- irrigated.

Patnaik said the government had decided to set up at least 1,000 Minor Irrigation Projects (MIP) and lift irrigation points during 2008 to ensure that all the fields get water.

"At least Rs 2,000 crore will be spent on improving the irrigation facilities in the state," the chief minister said, adding that some of the irrigation projects would be funded by NABARD.

The government has decided to undertake lining works in certain canals where water leakage were reported earlier, senior officials of the water resources department said.

"The aim is to ensure that the farmer at the tail end of the canal system gets irrigation facilities," Patnaik said.

X

Odisha.in reports that IOC will set up a Biodiesel refinery in Orissa. Following is an excerpt from an Odisha.in  news item on this.

The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Thursday announced to set up a Bio-Diesel Oil Refinery in Orissa.

This was announced by B.B.Choudhury, chief of IOC, Eastern Zone at the Banker’s Committee meeting on rising of energy plantation and Bio-Diesel production being organised jointly by OREDA and Science and Technology Department, Orissa.

Choudhury said that IOC had plans to support all necessary infrastructures for sustainable and qualitative production of Bio-Diesel.

He said that IOC would set up the proposed Bio-fuel processing unit in a centrally located area and urged the state government to help supply high yielding non-edible Jatropha or Karanja seeds of at least 2 lakh Metric tones annually to make the unit viable.

IOC has decided to blend Petrol and Diesel with ethanol content in rational level ,he said .presiding over the meeting Orissa Chief Secretary, Ajit Tripathy announced that a Bio-Diesel Park would be set up at Deras , in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

First an IT park, followed by a bio-tech one and now Orissa is set for a bio-diesel space.

Chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy in the capital city today flagged of the park project, which would boast of a research laboratory, as well as a plantation area with jatropha, karanja and castor plants — all of which produce oil.

… the chief secretary added that the construction work has been given to the Majhighariani Institute of Technology and Science Group, which has already started jatropha curcas plantation on 50,000 hectare in 10 Orissa districts.

“The group, in association with the government and banks, would set up the park. A minimum 100 acre is required and we have identified the land near Deras agricultural farm on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar,” said Balkrishna Panda, the chairman of the group.

He added that 10-odd acre would be required for the plantation alone. Besides, the park will be used for research, publicity and training of farmers on bio-diesel. In addition to it, the park would have one-stop solutions for fertiliser, spice and tissue culture issues, besides units of bio-diesel production plants

“It will be on public-private partnership (PPP) mode and will provide employment to 10 million in the state directly or indirectly,” said Panda.

Several banks, including Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, UCO bank and the Orissa State Cooperative Bank, have shown interest in the project. Indian Oil has also agreed to a marketing tie-up.

Jatropa is not a new concept for Orissa farmers. It often is planted on boundaries to protect the crop from stray cattle. But, its plantation on commercial basis in unproductive land is a new one.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

The Orissa Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA) on Tuesday announced that it has planned to cultivate Jatropha over 2 million hectares of wasteland in the KBK region.

… Science and Technology Minister Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo said the need of the time is to go for an alternative of fossil fuels. Therefore, the production of bio-fuel from non-edible vegetable oils, particularly Jatropha curcas, is a much talked-about subject in the world. Orissa is among the first five States in the country that have come forward for bio-fuel production. The objective of the plan is to get substitution of fossil fuels, generation of employment and utilisation of wastelands, he said.

Secretary, Science and Technology, NC Vasudevan, said the Indian Oil Corporation has agreed to take the responsibility of bio-fuel marketing through its already existing network in the country. Director, OREDA, Ajit Bharthuar, said the oilseeds would be produced by the farmers and OREDA would buy the seeds from them to support them.

Following is an excerpt from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33463.

Under the National Programme for promoting conservation of medicinal plants and traditional knowledge, the facilitating agencies at the local level involved in preparation and updating such a register include:

(i)                   Swami Ramananda Tirtha Regional Institute, Hyderabad, Andhra      

            Pradesh

(ii)         Rural Communes, Mumbai, Maharashtra

(iii)        SAMBANDH, Bhubaneswar, Orissa

(iv)        Jagran Jan Vikas Samithi, Udaipur, Rajasthan

(v)         Tagore Society for Rural Development, Kolkata, West Bengal

Following is an excerpt from a report in the New Indian Express.

The State Government will seek Central assistance of Rs 45 crore under the Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) for the current fiscal.

The Centre has introduced the new additional Central assistance scheme to incentivise the State which exceed plan expenditure consecutively in the last three years.

… The committee approved the proposals of the Agriculture Department, which has sought an assistance of Rs 10.10 crore for managing acid soil to boost agriculture production, Rs 8.8 crore for popularisation of farm mechanisation and Rs 2.52 crore for systematic rice intensification in areas having low rice production.

Under the rice intensification programme, field demonstration will be taken up where farmers will be educated on how to get higher yield with less use of seeds, water and fertilisers, official sources said.

The department has asked an assistance of Rs 2 crore for strengthening soil testing service, Rs 1.06 crore for bio-fertiliser application for pulses and oilseeds and Rs 55.55 lakh for promotion of organic farming through vermi hatchery and blue green algae.

It has also proposed to set up seed processing plant in Gajapati, Kendrapara and Jharsuguda districts and modernise the agriculture information wing in the city and at Sambalpur with an investment of Rs 1.80 crore and Rs 1.18 crore respectively.

Since the Centre will provide the additional assistance in two streams, the total estimate for 12 projects in the first stream is Rs 28.83 crore. Seventy-five percent of the additional Central assistance is for programme implementation while the remaining 25 percent is to bridge resource gap in the State plan.

The Government will ask Rs 15.94-crore Central assistance under the stream-II out of which Rs 4 crore will be for strengthening its implement factory at Satyanagar, Rs 2.45 crore for infrastructure development and strengthening the training centres (gram sevak kendras), Rs 7 crore for construction of 17 seed storage godowns and Rs 2 crore for establishment of agro-service centres at gram panchayat level.

Following is an excerpt from Pioneer on this.

The State Government has decided on setting up of a Rs 120-crore sugar factory in the private sector in Koraput. With the availability of water from river Indravati and its tributaries, the sugarcane cultivation has been a big success in the blocks of Borrigumma, Kotpad and Jeypore in Koraput district and Nandahandi, Tentulikhunti, Nabarangpur and Kosagumuda blocks in Nabarangpur district. The cane is grown in about 8,000 hectares of land in the two districts per annum and over 3,000 trucks of sugarcane are produced. As there is no sugar factory in the region, farmers depend on the sugar factory at Balangir to sell their produce. Now, a sugar factory project, to be set up near Aunli in Koraput district by Indravati Sugar Company, has been cleared by the Government. The factory is expected to come up by the next crop season.

Financial express reports that Orissa Govt. will formulate a sugar policy soon. Excerpts:

“The state will soon announce a policy for sugar industries and cane growers”, said state agriculture director, Arabinda Padhi. “We are, in fact, working on formulating the policy “ he added.

Only last week, the Federation of Sugar Industries, in a memorandum to the state government, had demanded that the government come out with a policy to promote sugar mills and cane farming. According to the federation, there is a huge potential to not only make the state self-sufficient in sugar production but also exports. Pointing out that 12.5% value-added tax on cane, the highest in the country, was killing sugar mills in the state, the federation demanded that Vat rates be immediately rationalised. It said at least 15 crore farm labour days could be created in the cane sector in the state. “