State Govt to promote aromatic culture

To enhance farmers’ income through crop diversification, the State Government on Friday decided to initiate steps for promotion of agro-entrepreneurship among farmers in aromatic culture.

A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi at the Secretariat here.

Union Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Secretary Arun Kumar Panda informed that all technical and knowledge support to be availed from the Fragrance and Flavour Development Center (FFDC).

It was also decided that a pilot programme would be grounded in the Ganjam district from the month of August 2018 involving around 400 sfarmers and on the basis of outcomes the programme would be extended to other coastal and hill regions of the State.

The Chief Secretary directed to provide appropriate support to the farmers right from training to cultivation, distillation, quality assessment and marketing linkage within easy access. Union MSME Secretary Aurun Kumar Panda advised to start with the aroma plants like vetiver, palmarosa, and kerwa.

Experts said that the income from cultivation of one acre of palmarosa would be around Rs 35,000 and the income from vetiver per acer would be around Rs 60,000. Apart from that, the farmers can make money from kewra planted on boundary of the fields.