By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: On Friday, the World Bank team along with the Project Director of OIIPCA and other officials visited the Agricultural Production Cluster (APC) at Ma Kalijai PG in Harichandanpur Block.
The World Bank team inquired about the farming practices, marketing and financial status of the women farmers before the APC project and the current status. The members of the producer group explained that khara is cultivated in more than 70 acres of land under the APC cluster system.
The khara is cultivated by 110 women farmers using low-cost single-line trellises, soilless nursery entrepreneurs, mulching and drip irrigation along with solar borewells. And has provided success to the farmers. For input and output market linkages, farmers get support from the promoted Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) under the APC project.
Produce is marketed directly from the farm to Cuttack, Jajpur and Bhadrak through the FPCs. Earlier, their annual income from vegetable farming was Rs. 6000 to Rs. 10000, but now most of the members of their PG are earning more than Rs. 1 lakh from vegetable farming. The World Bank delegation expressed happiness on seeing this success of the farmers. He advised other APC clusters like Maa Kalijai PG of Harichandanpur to also adopt the above method and get more profit with less expenditure.
