District Agromet Unit (DAMU)
Addressing the need for Agromet Advisories to be more crop and location specific with an objective of extending to all farming households in the country, the existing network of GKMS scheme is being extended to district level by establishing District Agromet Units (DAMU) in the premises of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) in collaboration with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). DAMU units are being established in KVKs under ICAR network in a phased manner for rendering block level Agromet Advisory Services.District Agro-met Unit (DAMU), a project of Indian Meteorological Dept. is operational in nine Krishi Vigyan Kendras of OUAT viz.Nayagarh, Gajapati, Ganjam-I, Bolangir, Rayagada, Mayurbhanj-I, Angul, Puri and Jagatsinghpur Based on medium range weather forecast, block-wise Agromet advisory bulletins are transmitted weekly twice to state department, IMD, NGOs and mass media. SMS are also send to farmers of the respective district through KISAN portal and WhatsApp groups. Nine automatic weather stations have been established in DAMU operational KVK campuses for recording location specific real time weather data for the benefit of local farmers.
Comprehensive project on rice fallow management:
Rice fallow area is defined as the medium and low land areas where no crops are grown during rabi season after harvest of kharif rice. Prevalence of 12.2 lakh ha rice fallows in Odisha, is attributed to various factors such as early withdrawal of monsoon limiting the soil moisture for sowing of rabi crops, growing of long duration rice varieties, water logging or excessive moisture in rabi, lack of appropriate varieties for rabi season and socio economic problems like stray cattle menace. To address the rice fallow areas of Odisha with the objective of improving pulse production in rice fallow, the Department of Agriculture and Farmer’s Empowerment, Govt. of Odisha implemented a project entitled “Comprehensive Project on Rice Fallow Management” under which cluster demonstration on pulse crops were conducted in 1.0 lakh ha during rabi’2022-23. Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology conducted pulse demonstration in 500 ha area through 11 KVKs in 44 villages of 17 blocks (1314 no of beneficiaries) in 10 districts of Odisha. The 11 participating KVKs in this programme are KVK, Angul, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Ganjam-I, Ganjam-II, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Nayagarh and Rayagada
Technology Demonstration Centre for farmers:
A Technology Demonstration Centre for farmers is being developed at OUAT, Bhubaneswar with funding support of RKVY, Odisha. Such centre would have state of art infrastructure for training, workshop, conference and accommodation for the farmers. This unit will be an epicentre of convergence and develop an inclusive and farmers-centric approach for farmers’ empowerment and programme delivery.
Technical support to Farmers Producer Organization:
The KVKs of OUAT have taken a leading role in strengthening Farmers Producer Organizations(FPOs) across the state. With support from Govt of Odishaunder RKVY funding, two FPOs have been promoted at Aska and Sorada blocks in Ganjam district with a total membership of 1000 and 862, respectively. Besides, 10 FPOs have been promoted by KrishiVigyanKendras in five districts. Apart from this, KVKs are providing need based training, demonstration, exposure visit, advisory service, market facilitation for 152 FPOs