Agricultural Extension Services:

       The Agriculture Extension machinery under the Director of Agriculture is engaged in the transfer of latest production technologies to the farmers round the year. There is tremendous scope for up-gradation of technologies adopted in farming of different crops in our State, as less advanced cultivation practices are being adopted in most crops by a majority of farmers. The Agricultural Extension Workers from the village level and upwards play the most significant role in facilitating this technology up-gradation. Besides personal contact and advice on package of practices on crop production, 678 Farmers' Training Programmes, 520 Farmers' Field Schools and 6740 Demonstrations were conducted under the crop oriented programmes like Work Plan for Macro Management of Agriculture, ISOPOM, ICDP (Cotton) and Jute Technology Mission for bringing the advanced production technologies to the door-step of the farmers. To supplement the efforts put in by Agriculture Extension functionaries 3058 nos. of Krushak Sathis have been created under Work Plan. A Trainers' Training at the State level and 47 Pre-seasonal orientation training programmes for extension workers were organized at the district levels before the Kharif and the Rabi campaigns during 2007-08 to equip the field functionaries manning the elaborate extension machinery under the Department with information about recent advances in production technologies of different crops.

       Besides technology transfer; building awareness and confidence among the farmers for crop substitution from paddy to more remunerative non-paddy crops like pulses, oilseeds, vegetables and other horticultural crops, particularly in the highlands; encouraging varietals replacement and propagation of newer location-specific High yielding varieties, popularizing the use of improved and mechanised farm implements for carrying out field operations effectively and timely were the focus of extension efforts.

Agricultural Farms:-

      There are 62 farms existing under Agriculture Directorate having a total geographical area of 1428 hectares. The Departmental farms are used for production of Foundation and Certified Seeds for use in the Department's programmes. During 2007-08, 3735 quintals of Foundation Seeds (3497 qtls. Paddy + 238 qtls. Non-paddy ) and 31219 quintals of Certified seeds (29803 qtls. Paddy + 1416 qtls. Non-paddy ) are estimated to be produced in these Farms. During 2008-09, it is programmed to produce 3845 quintals of Foundation seeds (3600 qtls. Paddy + 245 qtls. Non-paddy ) and 32705 quintals of Certified seeds (31000 qtls. Paddy + 1705 qtls. Non-paddy) in those farms.

Soil Testing Services:-

      Soil testing is an important technical support service needed by Farmers. For catering to this need of the farmers of the State the Department provides facilities for soil testing through 11 Soil Testing Laboratories located at Balasore, Baripada, Bolangir, Berhampur, Bhawanipatna, Cuttack, Phulbani, Sambalpur, Semiliguda and Sundargarh and a State Level Lab at Bhubaneswar at a nominal charge of Rs.5/- per sample. In the year 2007-08, two new Soil Testing laboratories are being established at Angul and Keonjhar. Besides, Agricultural Officers of all 314 blocks have been provided with soil testing kits to test the soil samples at their level.

     During 2007-08, 78873 soil samples have been tested in the Department's laboratories and 10003 soil samples have been tested with the help of soil testing kits.

     During 2008-09 it has been programmed to analyse 2.00 lakh soil samples.

Macro Management of Agriculture:-

     The Centrally Sponsored Scheme, Macro-Management of Agriculture is the most important vehicle for strategic interventions for technology up-gradation in different crops. Started in 2001-02, the Scheme has a funding pattern of 90% Central Share and 10% State Share. The Annual Work Plan for 2007-08 had components for promotion and technology up-gradation of three major crops viz. Rice, Ragi and Sugarcane, besides a host of demonstrations and training programmes for transfer of technology. Demonstrations on farmers' fields, Training through Farmers' Field Schools, Exposure visits of farmers are the main vehicles of technology transfer for the cultivation of different crops. Seed interventions through providing incentives for production of quality seeds and subsidy on use of certified seeds, were made for encouraging varietals replacement and uses of locations-specific HYV seeds. A major component of the Work Plan was the subsidization of farm machineries by farmers and demonstration on the efficacious use of Farm machineries. The achievement during 2007-08 and the programme for 2008-09 are given at Annexure-II [See Page No. 19]

Rice Development:-

      The following strategic interventions were made under the Work Plan for 2007-08 with an outlay of Rs.423.77 lakhs for increasing production and productivity of Rice. 144 Farmers' Field Schools were organized in non-ATMA districts and 7200 rice growers were trained in various aspects of rice production. In each Farmers' Field School 25 farmers were trained for five times during the cropping season at a cost of Rs.3950/- for each School as fixed cost and @ Rs 362.00/ trainee as variable cost. Discourses on important aspects of rice production like soil testing, variety selection etc. and demonstration of Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) / Integrated Pest Management etc were offered. Rs.16.76 lakhs is likely to be spent on the component. Besides, assistance was also provided to each of the trainee/ Krushak Sathi @ 1000/- for conducting Field level demonstration on rice production technology with an expenditure of Rs.30.58 lakhs.