Farmers in Odisha worried as absence of pre-monsoon rains delay sowing of paddy
new delhi: Farmers in Odisha worry about the absence of pre-monsoon rains which has delayed the paddy sowing in the Kharif season, as per reports. The state government of Odisha has shown the way forward by collaborating with the private sector and using technology to sail through the unpredictable monsoon.
Paddy is the first go-to crop for farmers since the market risk is zero because of government procurement. A large population of farmers in the state continue to grow crops while making low profits due to price asymmetry and lack of awareness.
However, a start-up GDi (Governance, Development, Impact) with the mission to transform communities has focused on the need to develop a real-time live price information dashboard which could help farmers. The start-up provides real-time live price analysis and trends that allow farmers to understand past trends and develop insights based on the use cases, and encourage farmers towards non-cereal crops for an improvement in income and soil fertility.
The dashboard fulfils the needs of multiple stakeholders such as the government, farmers, start-ups, and researchers. An open and adaptable public digital infrastructure for rural India has been created and sustained through technology which can be a boon for the farmers in states dependent on agriculture, the founder Ankur Bansal said in a statement. The state government in Orissa has sought private partnerships to set up tech systems for automating grading, reducing food wastage and analysing the weather.
On June 6-7, GDi participated in a conference titled ‘Evolving India: Re-imagining Rural Development for Shared Prosperity’ that congregated three stakeholders – The Ministry of Rural Development, The World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Domain experts, academics and administrators brainstormed on how to leverage digital opportunities for rural India and deliberated upon ideas around reimagining the design of cooperatives and traditional modes of livelihood in rural India.
The Agriculture sector in Odisha engages around 60 per cent of the workforce. It accounts for 18 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product and has registered a 4.5 per cent compounded annual growth rate compared to India’s 3-3.5 per cent growth rate at nominal prices. The Krushak Odisha database is a farmer-centric database of more than 70 lakh farmers in Odisha. The database captures information related to the farmers, like demographic details, land details, and crops grown by the farmers and is available for all farmers to use.
“We do not understand technology as such and how it can help us but if the government can help us understand it and reduce our risks it would be wonderful,” Sanjay Rout, a farmer from Ganjam district told Millennium Post.
