BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to formulate a new agriculture policy that envisages to "make the running water walk, walking water to stock and stocked water to stop."

Theme paper

With emphasis on water management, a theme paper prepared by the Agriculture Department of Orissa said the State's future economic development and social welfare required better planning and allocation of water across sectors.The department said keeping in view of the climatic conditions of the State, it had been decided to focus on water management. "Average rainfall of the State is 1400 mm, which generally pours in during two months of a year. Everyone in the department from top to bottom will be involved in water conservation process starting from farmers," the paper said.

The department came out different ideas on conserving water. "For crop irrigation, optimal water efficiency means minimising losses due to evaporation or runoff. An evaporation pan can be used to determine how much water is required to irrigate the land," it said.

Drip irrigation

The department was also dwelling on drip irrigation proposal. "Drip irrigation is the most expensive and least-used type, but offers the best results in delivering water to plant roots with minimal losses." "As changing irrigation systems can be a costly undertaking, conservation efforts often concentrate on maximising the efficiency of the existing system. This may include chiselling compacted soils, creating furrow dikes to prevent runoff, and using soil moisture and rainfall sensors to optimise irrigation schedules," the theme paper said.

The policy would to provide 35 per cent irrigation facility to all the 314 blocks.

Besides, the department was thinking of establishing `seed villages' in selected areas with association of farmers by encouraging quality seed production. Stating that the preservation of agricultural products would be taken up on priority basis, the department proposed to set up `cold chains' in many of the blocks.

The state government was contemplating to make agricultural loans available at seven percent interest rate.

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