Odisha’s agrarian economy is changing rapidly, claimed Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo on Thursday while noting that non-food items share in the total agricultural production of the state has been on the rise.

The contribution of rice is as high as 48 per cent in total production and it continues to be the dominant crop but nonfood items like oilseed, fibre, sugarcane which were only 2.6 per cent of the agri basket have grown as have floriculture and livestock, he said.

Dr. Sahoo was addressing the National E-Summit on agriculture-combating the pandemic organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Odisha chapter.

A lot has to be done to create more agri entrepreneurs with the support of industry, he observed. Mr Gokul Pattnaik, Chairman of, Global Agri system opined that the “Coronavirus pandemic showed two major faults of the Indian agriculture system. One is the supply chain and the second is the last-mile delivery. Farm produce changes hands six times to reach from farm to consumer. During the journey, the price of that product has increased by at least 60-70 percent”.

The CGM Nabard, Mr. C Udaysankar, said,” apart from large scale systems by big companies; we also need a mini supply chain system in the agriculture sector. During the pandemic, last year and also in the second wave small and marginal farmers suffered in marketing their produce.”

“We have to digitise the storage facilities and transport facilities and also look for E-NAM as a reality”.

Dr Pradipta Mohanty, Mentor, ICC Agri, and Food Processing Committee & Chairman, SNM Group held the view that an ecosystem for agriculture and allied sectors needs to be created. The state agriculture growth and gross value added is higher than the national average, he added.

The COO of PPL, Mr. Ranjit Chugh, highlighted the benefits of nano urea and said that nano urea growing to be best for many crops. It will be a great substitute for urea.

Mr. J B Pany Chairman, ICC Odisha State Council, Mr. M K Gupta Co – Chairman, ICC Odisha State Council, Mr. Shrikant Goenka, Chairman, ICC Agribusiness Committee & Managing Director, Premier Irrigation Agritec Ltd and others took part in the virtual meet.