CHES (ICAR-IIHR), Bhubaneswar participated in one day exhibition organised by ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar on the side-lines of fish festival on 2nd December 2020 at Old Mondei ground of Nabarangpur district of Odisha, under RKVY(S&T).
During the festival the guava plants (Arka Mrudula and Arka Amulya) and Arka vegetable seed kits were distributed to select beneficiaries by the Chief guest Hon’ble Member of Parliament from Nabarangpur district Sri Ramesh Chandra Majhi, Member of Legislative assembly of Odisha from Nabarangpur constituency, Sri Sadasiv Pradhani, in the august presence of District Collector Sri Ajit Kumar Mishra, Director, ICAR-CIFA and may other dignitaries.
During the occasion an exhibition was organised where in the activities and achievements of CHES, ICAR-IIHR, Bhubaneswar in horticultural development of Nabarangpur district of Odisha viz. commercial cultivation of vegetables of ICAR-IIHR varieties, commercial nursery activities, entrepreneurship development, backyard kitchen gardening, urban horti kits, etc. were displayed along with the quality planting material of fruit varieties of ICAR-IIHR for the benefit of the participating farmers, agripreneurers and other stakeholders. CHES (ICAR-IIHR) is supporting for development of 1200 nutri-kitchen gardens in different blocks of Nabarangpur in association of ORMAS, district fisheries department, and other agencies, besides supporting more than 1500 farmers for commercial vegetable cultivation in different blocks of Nabarangpur district. All these activities are being taken up through a unique RKVY(S&T) initiative on ‘Farm based S&T Interventions for Socio-economic Development in the Aspirational District of Nabarangpur, Odisha’.
Earlier Shri Manmath Kumar Pani, Additional Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmer's Empowerment, Govt of Odisha visited High-Tech Nursery established by CHES (ICAR-IIHR), Bhubaneswar at Govindalaya's Centre of Empowerment, Soruguda village of Dangarbheja Panchayat in Nandahandi Block under RKVY(S&T) and reviewed the progress of the commercial nursery intervention for production of high yielding quality planting material of horticultural crops. For the initial period for establishing the mother blocks, CHES (ICAR-IIHR), Bhubaneswar provided the mother planting material for mango (Arka Neelachal Kesari, Amrapali, Mallika, Dussehari), Guava (Arka Rashmi and Arka Kiran), Pine apple (Queen), Tuberose (Arka Prajwal), Marigold (Arka Bangara 2), Ivy gourd (Arka Neelachal Sabuja and Arka Neelachal Kunkhi), and Teasel gourd (Arka Neelachal Gourav) under the project.
The participation in the programmes was organised and coordinated by Dr P. Srinivas, Principal Scientist and Principal Investigator of CHES component of the project with the active help of Sri Sarbeshwar Patra, Field assistant, and the members of Ma Mahima Self-help Group, officials of Govindalaya, and officials of State line department. All norms of social distancing, hand sanitizing and wearing of masks was ensured during different programmes.
