The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR, SEPT 23, 2022
Global sustainable agriculture specialist organisation Solidaridad has joined hands with Sarat Kar & Anima Kar Foundation and Idea-Vodafone Foundation to transform Cuttack and Kendrapada districts into climate- and digitally-smart agricultural districts.
The project, launched at the ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture Bhubaneswar on Friday by senior bureaucrat Roopa Roshan Sahoo in the presence of about 200 farmers, would directly benefit 50,000 small farmers of these two districts over the next three years, Solidaridad said in a statement.
The project would further collaborate and complement several good works done by the state and central government to bring benefits to the farming population in these two districts. The interventions are expected to create a significant increase in farming incomes and create new rural employment options for the local youth as tech-savvy young agri-entrepreneurs.
The program would transform the conventional agriculture followed in Odisha into smart agriculture by using the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and real-time technology solutions.
It would provide farmers with information on critical elements of farming like soil and air quality, wind, presence of insects and pests, and crop growth. Farmers would receive real-time and localized advisories on critical agri-inputs for their crops and agricultural news on markets, government policies, schemes, etc.
“Odisha is an Agrarian State. Almost 70 percent population of Odisha is dependent on agriculture. However, traditional agricultural practices are leading to low income. Investment in smart agriculture is the best mechanism to make life better for millions of farmers in Odisha. Different interventions in this project will empower the farmers in Cuttack and Kendrapara districts,” said Shatadru Chattopadhyay, Managing Director of Solidaridad for Asia.
Solidaridad has been a frontrunner in sustainable economic development and champions the cause of the small and marginal farmers, workers, and miners.
