Involving Women in Farm Mechanisation for Improving Livelihoods of Farmers in Odisha

Abstract

According to the Odisha Economic Survey 2016-17, marginal and small farmers constitute 92 per cent of the total land holdings in the State. This proportion of the farming population is not fully able to access the improved package of practices for agricultural production, livestock management and animal husbandry. The distress of the farming community has been addressed by an innovative idea of involving women for the management and operationalisation of Common Facility Centres (CFC) for farm mechanisation. To accomplish the requirement of the stakeholders, first, all the farmers at Gram Panchayats gets access to farm equipment which is in turn linked with gram panchayat level federations to facilitate the services delivery. Secondly, it has enlightened the locally engineered methodology and indigenous technology to be adopted for need-based use according to difficult situations. Thirdly, by simplification of the procedure to avail such facilities, the CFC has become a demand-driven entity. In addition to this, the existing small and medium manufacturers have come up to produce a scalable quantity of new equipment. This has resulted in skill development with the help of community cadre and encouraged the individual entrepreneur to take advantage of these units. This initiative encouraged people to adopt modern technologies like cycle-mounted solar pump sets, drip irrigation systems, irrigation and other agricultural infrastructure asset creation under MGNREGS.