Inaugurating a workshop on “Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India – Focus, Orissa” here, Mr. Patnaik said since Orissa has primarily a rice-based farming system major efforts need to be made for increasing the productivity of rice.

“Simultaneously, we need to give emphasis on crop diversification as upland paddy area need to be diversified to other crops such as maize, oil seed and pulses,” he added.

Observing that the effect of climate change is already visible in the country as well as in the State, Mr. Patnaik said the rainfall distribution over time and space has started showing erratic behaviour.

“The strategy under this new initiative should aim at addressing this issue so as to minimise the impact of climate change on crop production and productivity. Agronomic practices need to be reoriented so that our farmers adapt to climatic changes,” he said.

Although activists working in the field of agriculture and welfare of farmers have come forward to oppose to the idea of 2 {+n} {+d} Green Revolution, Mr. Patnaik expressed happiness that the Centre has realised the potential of eastern Indian plains comprising of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa, and announced this new initiative for extending Green Revolution of Eastern India aimed at bridging the yield gap in the productivity.

The Chief Minister, however, said “while pursuing the goals of the 2nd Green Revolution we should not loose tract of the sustainability of methods adopted to achieve these goals.”

“Achieving an unprecedented yield for a few years with depleting fertility of the lands will not be acceptable. Excessive use of fertilizer and pesticides is as undesirable as their lack of use.

Hence, we need to orient our strategies for achieving sustainable and equitable growth of agriculture,” he said.