Women join hands to create water reservoir in Odisha

PURI: The women members of 32 households of Udayakani have set an example for others being part of creating durable asset of the community. Being severely affected by the Cyclone Phailin and its subsequent flood, the women members of the village took charge toresolve the long standing demand of waterin their village. Dominantly a Dalit populated village, Udayakani people have always been sidelined from the developmental opportunities as a causative of the social stratification.

Grippingly, the role of women remains instrumental; starting from the selection of beneficiary to the selection of work for the Cash for Work scheme. Women took the leadership in doing the pond excavation work; not depending solely on the male members. The Village Disaster Response Committee; which is formed in every project village to ensure community ownership and bringing women into fore in decision making process, the women honed skills and demonstrated their leadership with all appropriateness.It was possible due to the continuous support and process facilitation by implementing organizations ActionAid and Young India.

Nature has always been impolite to the villagers by taking their habitation into its fury and destroying agriculture – the basic livelihood source. The villagers of Udayakani have been displaced three times since 1956 as the houses and agricultural lands have been submerged by the sea. Water was a major challenge for them especially after the Phailin and the villagers had no other options but to manage with the saline water which may have exposure to contamination. Alternatively, they had to go the neighbor village to bath and for drinking water.

“As cyclone Phailin and subsequent flood caused a trail of damage and destruction to lives and properties of the village, the people were in urgent need of income source to meet daily basic needs for their families.Also, not a single work under MGNREGA was started in the village since the Act is operational. So, it was difficult for the villagers to sustain their lives. Wedecided to startwage based programme Cash For Work in the village immediately to the villagersand European Commission on Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) has provided all financial support for this activity, said Mr. N.A. Shah Ansari, Social Activist and President of Young India.

Cash for Work has not only helped the villagers to meet their daily household needs but also enabled them to createa durable asset for the community as well,” Mr.Ansari added.

Now the villagers have realized their dream.Water has already started accumulating in both the two ponds and the villagers have already started using it for bathing other sanitary purpose.

Water was a long standing demand of our village. Now we are happy that we can have our daily bath and that is in our village. The support we received from these organizations has definitely added values and dignity to our community, said Ms.Tarulata Kandi, President ofVillage Disaster Response Committee.The result we grew from the work has enthused us to do more work for the village and we will continue to play our parts to create and improve our community resources, Ms. Kandi revealed.

The women members of the village have proved that Unity works as the core principle of a positive change in the community and women too can perform all the productive works that male members do.

Potagarh fort in Orissa to get facelift

Potagarh fort, which stands as a mute witness to the vicissitudes of history in Orissa, is all set to get a facelift following the state government's decision to make it a major tourist destination.

About 350-year-old historic forts would be restored, conserved and made a heritage tourism destination under the World Bank funded Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP), a senior official of the ICZMP said.

A special team of World Bank and support joint mission led by Tapas Paul along with the project officials from West Bengal and Gujarat visited the heritage site recently.

The team also visited Tampara, a wetland near Chhatrapur which would be developed as an eco-tourism centre through the project and Sana Nolianuagaon, a fishermen village in the district.

"Besides restoration and conservation, the site would be developed as a major tourist destination as part of the ICZMP," according to project director A K Pattanaik.

Besides Potagarh and the British Cemetery near Ganjam town, seven other heritage sites are to be developed. The other sites are Baba Kundaleswar temple of Manikapatna, Baliharichandi temple near Puri, Hariharadeva temple, Nairi, Bateswara temple, Kantiagada (Ganjam), Jagannath temple, Pentha and Jamboo Colonial Building, Kendrapara.

About Rs7.41 crore would be spent in five years to develop the sites for heritage tourism, sources said. The team members appreciated steps taken by ICZMP-Orissa to conserve the monuments and to develop them as tourist spots by involving cultural and tourism departments as executing agencies.

Potagada, built in 1768 as a star-shaped fort, is surrounded by a wide and deep moat. It's strongly built earthen rampart is about 15-feet high, 92-metre long and 19-metre wide. The fort was built underground and one could not see it from a distance. "The fort was built in this shape to protect it from invaders," noted historian Shishir Kumar Panda of Berhampur University said.

The main gate of the fort was ruined. However, the gate on the other side was found almost intact.

Within the fort, there are office buildings, magazine, artillery, armoury, store, custom houses etc. The destructive flood of river Rushikulya in 1990 caused considerable damage to the fort.

The ICZM project is being implemented in Orissa with a financial outlay of Rs227.60 crore on a pilot basis to protect the coastal belt and to improve the socio-economic development of coastal people.

Price of king of fruits soars high

Price of king of fruits soars high
….Bad weather affected flowering decreases mango production
Hemanta Kumar Pradhan

Mango trees, leaves and fruits are attached with the sentiment of the people in several cultures of India. The hay days of childhood in the dense mango grooves of granny’s farmhouse and memorable swing on the happy happy boughs of mango trees are now a business and source of economy.

India is the largest mango producer in the world. It contributes over 55 percent of total world production. Here mango grows in approximately 2.3 crore hectare of land. Major producers of mango in the country are Andhra Pradesh (25.48), Uttar Pradesh (21.32), Karnataka (9.86), Bihar (9.75), Gujarat (6.45), Maharashtra (5.09), Tamilnadu (4.29), West Bengal (4.09), Kerala (4.08), Odisha (3.42) and others (6.45) percent of total production in the country. India also produces largest varieties of mangoes such as Alphonso, Banganapalli, Kesar, Langra, Chausa, Mallika, Amrapalli and Dussheri are the most popular varieties from across the country. Among these, Alphonso is a tasty and widely popular variety abroad and 40 percent of the produce is usually exported to the Middle-east, the USA, the Europe and the UAE.

Last year the country witnessed a bumper crop. The total mango production during 2010 was 15,025.7 lakh tonnes, but this year the mango production will decrease comparing to last year due to lingering cool weather, said an official of National Horticulture Board (NHB).

“The flowering is good this year however, the long winter season causing lingering cool temperature and hailstorms are likely to affect the fruiting, bringing the production down almost to last years’ level,” said NHB Managing Director Bijay Kumar.

Major producer of the country, Andhra Pradesh has been badly hit by the untimely rains which produces mostly Banganapalli, and Pandupalli varieties of mango. Like that, the production of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra also affected by unfavourable weather conditions at the time of flowering.

According to the Directorate of Horticulture, Odisha, this year the mango production in Odisha is likely to dip 30 to 40 percent comparing the last years 5.77 lakh MT.

Earlier, farmers had expected a bumper crop seeing the flowering, but the untimely rain and foggy condition put an end to all the expectations. The damage was very huge. Later now flowers came on mango trees but the quality was very low, said a farmer of Palur area near Berhampur, Odisha.

According to the Directorate of Horticulture, the reasons of less productions are-
First, unseasonal rain at the stage of flowering may destroy the crop. After bearing of fruit, it’s a boom. Apart from that, heavy windfall also destroys the crop. Second, the sootymold or attack of mango hopper affected inflorescence of mango plant lead to destruction of flowers. Third, most of the north Indian varieties have varietal characteristics of a bumper crop in one year gap. This year is a gap. In Odisha, most of the mango trees are old type and of Desi (country made) varieties. In this variety, the yield is not good every year. But in south India, the varieties like Totapuri, Banganapalli, Neelum, Pandupalli are the regular bearers. Besides these, some hybrid varieties like Amrapalli, Mallika, Ratna and others are the regular bearers grows in almost all the mango producing states.

The hubs of mango marketing in Odisha are Berhampur and Bhubaneswar, which imports most of the varieties of mangoes from Andhra Pradesh, because the Desi varieties and state productions were not available at the time of its reach and it has a greater demand in the state. Second reason is- in western Odisha, Koraput and Sambalpur exports their production through contract auction to Andhra and Rayapur respectively. Like that, Mayurbhanj exports Himsagar variety to Kolkata and Dhenkanal exports Dussheri varieties to Lucknow. This variety of Odisha hits the Lucknow market in May 15-20, whereas in UP, this type takes more time to ripening. So its demand is very high there.

15 to 17 wholesellers and more than 100 retailers in Bhubaneswar and 82 wholesellers and various retailers in Berhampur are meeting the demand of the people in the city and also exporting to other places of Odisha.

This year mango production is less, so the demand will increase accordingly the rate. As there is no local supply from the state, we import from outside. The demand of Banganapalli, Sindhri, Akhurasa, Pandupalli, Amrapalli is very high than others in the market, said a wholeseller Kuna of Baba Kapilnath Fruits, Bhubaneswar.

Odisha is lacking behind in mango production as compared to national level. So the Government should take appropriate steps to modernise from plantation to post harvesting and marketing. According to Directorate of Horticulture, Odisha, within 6 years 95,000 hectares of land was used for plantation of mango trees in the state by National Horticulture Mission (NHM). Now the NHM directed to the state to give emphasis on post-harvesting of mango. Recently, Govt. planned for plantation of mango trees through MGNREGA programme.

Directorate of Horticulture, Odisha is going to organise a mango festival to create enthusiasm among the farmers for mango farming and to aware them of the varieties and farming in different parts of the State. This innovative ways may help to increase the production not only the state, but also in the whole country.