CropsAt a national event in Bhubaneswar, ICAR Director General M. L. Jat held up Odisha's millet mission as a national model and called for the crop's area to grow from 1.79 lakh to 5 lakh hectares by 2047.
CropsOdisha had estimated about 90,000 hectares of crop damage from Cyclone Arnab, mostly paddy, when rain from Cyclone Murasu arrived. Farmers fear for milk-stage rice, and the state has announced input subsidies.
EnvironmentThe toll from unnatural deaths in and around the Odisha park has reached 22 in six years, and a conservationist blames prohibited nets and weak protection.
CropsStanding paddy, maize, pulses and vegetables were destroyed in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal, and many farmers without insurance fear they cannot repay bank loans.
EnvironmentWith hand pumps under floodwater in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts, families fear water-borne disease as the state sends tankers, halogen tablets and helicopter food drops.
FisheriesThe ban runs from 1 November to 31 May 2027 off Odisha's nesting beaches, while MPEDA hands out free turtle excluder devices to help win back the US market for India's wild-caught shrimp.
EnvironmentAs Arnab heads for the Andhra Pradesh coast, several forecast models show a new system that could reach Odisha around 1-2 November, though forecasters say it is far from certain.
CropsIndia's weather office expects a low over the Bay of Bengal to become a depression by 25 October and possibly a cyclonic system, just as Odisha and Andhra Pradesh harvest their kharif rice.
EnvironmentWriting in Down To Earth, Ranjan Panda says the early arrival of winter birds at Odisha's Chilika lake should be read alongside a warming, less predictable lake and Arctic, and calls for fisherfolk to help monitor it.
CropsAt a summit in Bhubaneswar, five buyers and five farmer producer organisations agreed deals for about 1,000 tonnes of low-GI, high-protein and pigmented rice, and the state plans to expand the crop from 1,200 to 10,000 hectares.
AgrotechICAR's Central Institute for Women in Agriculture has given 85 women's groups in Puri district its pedal-operated coconut dehusker and trained them to use it, a tool designed to cut the strain and hand injuries of dehusking by hand.
Dairy company Hatsun Agro Product has launched Go-Dhan with the Odisha government and State Bank of India to help 6,000 dairy farmers in 15 districts get loans, subsidies and better herds over three years.
