Bhubaneswar: As the Kharif season is in full swing and there is a bit delay in monsoon rainfall, the Minister Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, Ranendra Pratap Swain has emphasized on timely supply of agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertiliser and other critical inputs to the farmers.
Shri Swain took stock of situation of different schematic interventions, achievements and monitoring through digitized platform Krushi Samiksha Kendra (KSK). He also instructed to facilitate the credit facility to the farmers in a time bound manner to expedite the agricultural operations in a more scientific and innovative ways.
Minister Shri Swain was very apprehensive about the climate aberrations which not only influences agricultural production in the State but also delays the agricultural operations.
Keeping that in view, the rainfall status of the State as well as Districts was reviewed and suggested the field functionaries to be in readiness to arrest or to prevent the prevailing dry spells. Besides, Crop Coverage of different Districts, pre-positioning of inputs like Seeds & Fertilizers, area sown under NFSM (Rice), Green Manuring under Dhanicha cultivation, development and Area Coverage under Potato, Vegetables & Spices and development and ongoing status of MGNREGS- Farm Ponds were reviewed by Minister.
It is pertinent to mention here that, the agriculture in the State has been transformed due to technological innovations, interventions and digitisation. In this backdrop, a new digital platform named Krushi Samiksha Kendra (KSK) has been installed and institutionalized to capture the real-time ground data, analyze the raw data and publish the data to bring a radical and science based decision support system to make the agricultural operations more vigilant, accountable and transparent. This initiative is first of its kindan Integrated Command & Control Centre in the agriculture domain.
The KSK operating in Krushi Bhawan premises is a state of art and showcasing the agriculture innovations, evidence-based scientific applications in the production portfolio in the State.
Under the able guidance of the Principal Secretary, A&FE, Arabinda Padhee, the entire team of KSK is committed to transform the facsimile of State Agriculture to a completely revamped digitised agricultural ecosystem which not only will be resilient to the perils of climate change but also will make the agricultural production system sustainable. The inclusion of KSK will help create policy space to accomodate more and more ground data on various critical issues and to develop rational, logical and doable policy innovations.
Krushi Samiksha Kendra was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik on the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Trutiya on 23 April, 2023.
As India’s first Integrated Command and Control Centre in the agriculture domain, the Krushi Samiksha Kendra monitors schematic interventions & service delivery, generates the data on different weather parameters & their impact study on different agricultural operations and extra provides real time ground data to leverage and publish evidence-based policy design by the Department, leveraging through the ADAPT Decision Support System, rule-based personalized nudges & alerts to officials, and regular surveys of farmers and other stakeholders in the agriculture ecosystem.