Crop Diversification Program

Anchalik Samrudhi Sadhana Anusthan

The Mega Lift irrigation program was initiated by the government of Odisha in 2011-12 to provide irrigation to upland and medium land areas that couldn’t be irrigated by conventional methods. The program includes projects with irrigation command areas ranging from 500 to 2000 hectares. A total of 174 sites in 15 clusters, located in the catchments of rivers like Vansadhara, Indravati, Tel, Mahanadi, Brahmani, Baitarani, Budhabalanga, as well as near Hirakud and Rengali lakes, were identified to cover 214,270 hectares of cultivated land. Currently, 18 districts with a total of 124,700 hectares have operational Mega Lift irrigation projects.

The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment, Government of Odisha, implemented a Crop Diversification Programme (CDP) on a trial basis during Kharif 2021 in four districts – Kalahandi, Malkangiri, Koraput, and Nabarangpur – aiming to convert paddy areas under the ayacut of mega lift irrigation projects into non-paddy crops. The scheme will be extended to 18 districts during Kharif 2022.

In this context, Anchalik Samrudhi Sadhana Anusthan (ASSA) partnered with the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment to implement the project in the Titilagarh block of Balangir district. The CDP in Titilagarh block covers 25 villages across six-gram panchayats.

Objectives of crop diversification 

  • Diversification from paddy to non-paddy crops with a focus on pulses & oil seeds and horticultural crops in upland / medium land in Kharif.
  • Improving soil health through the promotion of crops with heavy biomass and less chemical input requirement.
  • Integration with livestock and fisheries.
  • Cluster-based promotion of post-harvest, primary processing, value addition & marketing through CBOs like FPOs/ WSHGs and agri-entrepreneur for higher income.
  • To create awareness, capacity building, and community mobilization of farmers on the sustainability of cropping patterns and diet diversification.

Major results/ output of farmers meeting-

  • CDP beneficiary demand for CBOs service.
  • CHC will be very helpful to them.
  •  They also want timely input so that they avoid crop loss.
  • After getting aware of this program so many new farmers are also interested in different non-paddy crop cultivation so we made a Kharif 2023-24 plan for them.
  • Some CDP beneficiaries also want to change their crop on the next Kharif to increase their income.