Odisha to extend BGREI scheme to 22 districts

The state government has decided to implement the Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) scheme in 22 districts in the current fiscal, instead of 16 districts covered under the scheme last year.

In the new list, the government has added nine districts while dropping three districts - Deogarh, Jharsuguda and Kandhamal. The newly included districts are Bolangir, Boudh, Ganjam, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Nabarangpur and Sambalpur.

The 16 districts where the scheme will continue are Balasore, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Khurda, Kandhamal, Puri, Kalahandi, Koraput, Rayagada and Subarnapur.

The government of India has approved allocation of Rs 184 crore for Odisha under the scheme. The funding would be equally shared by both the state and the Union government. In 2014-15, Odisha utilised Rs 178.21 crore under BGERI, recording 100 per cent achievement in interventions like crop demonstration, asset building, catering to site specific need and providing marketing support. For current fiscal, some new programmes such as demonstration in clusters, cropping based training and site specific activities are planned.

BGREI, a sub-scheme of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) is intended to address the constraints limiting the productivity of rice based cropping systems. It was initially launched in 2010-11 in eastern India.