BHUBANESWAR: Keeping the rising prices of edible oils in mind, the Centre has taken steps to increase the oilseeds production in the country including Odisha. Sunflowers have been identified for area expansion. As many as 15 districts of Odisha have been chosen for this project.
These districts were Angul, Balasore, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Balangir, Cuttack, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Puri, Deogarh and Sambalpur.
National Food Security Mission (NFSM) of the Centre has selected ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (IIOR) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to lead this activity and conduct large scale demonstrations of sunflower in paddy fallows.
Experts of these two institutions will put emphasis on popularizing the crop in new areas and demonstrate its potentiality as a profitable crop without replacing other crops. They will demonstrate the techniques of growing the crop to about 10,000 farmers and help them to get high yielding hybrid seeds. They will create market linkage for the farmers, official sources said.
“Many farmers do not grow a second crop after harvesting paddy. But they can grow sunflowers soon after harvesting paddy. It will definitely increase their income along with oilseeds demand of the country,” said Manzoor Dar, seed systems and scaling specialist at ICRISAT and coordinator of the project.
He said India remains one of the largest importers of edible oils globally in spite of rapid increase in oilseeds production in recent years. Oil prices have increased owing to the Russia-Ukraine war. To become self-sufficient in oilseeds production, the Centre has prepared a strategy to expand crop area and intensify oilseeds production in eastern India, he added.
A senior official from the agriculture and farmers’ empowerment department said they will provide support to this project. “This project is funded by the Centre. After we get details about the project, we will help the Central team,” he said, adding, “Sunflower crop is grown across the state, but we find farmers of Kalahandi, Bhadrak, Balasore and Mayurbhanj cultivate it widely. The state witnessed a production of 23 metric tonnes of sunflower seeds this year.”
