Bhubaneswar, April 7: Fifty NSS volunteers from the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (IAS), faculty of agricultural sciences of SOA Deemed to be University here, spent a week at Mendhasal, located on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar city, recently conducting comprehensive socio-economic surveys focusing on economic status, agricultural practices and water scarcity.
The comprehensive door-to-door survey, conducted between March 20 to 26, captured essential details such as family demographics, primary sources of income, crops grown by the farmers and major challenges they faced in agriculture.
The survey also covered other key areas like education, healthcare and awareness of various government welfare schemes and their benefits.
The findings showed that most farmers’ possessed more than one acre of land while some owned up to five to six acres. An interesting trend observed was that several persons had shifted to farming quitting their private sector employment. It was also found that around 70 to 80 per cent of the villagers had availed loans either from banks, cooperative societies or self-help groups.
The key agricultural challenges the farmers faced included pest infestations, water shortages at different times and crop damage caused by wild animals including elephants and wild boars. It was found that nearly half of the village population had no knowledge about government welfare schemes for the masses.
The villagers also complained about inadequate healthcare facilities in the area which required strengthening of existing measures.
The camp’s inaugural program was addressed by Prof. Santosh Kumar Rout, Dean of IAS, Dr. Kamal Lochan Mahanta, Program Coordinator of the SOA NSS bureau, Dr. Bibudha Parashar, Department of Agricultural Extension and Dr. Saroj Kumar Mohanty, Head of Department of Plant Physiology. Dr. Nitish Kumar Jena, Program Officer, NSS, outlined the key activities planned for the volunteers during the week while Dr. Sabyasachi Pradhan proposed the vote of thanks.
