Agricultural Producer Clusters Transforming Women Farmers’ Lives in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Agricultural Producer Clusters (APCs) in Odisha are emerging as a powerful model for rural prosperity, empowering women farmers with modern technology, market linkages, and higher incomes. The impact of this transformation was evident today when a World Bank team, accompanied by the Project Director of OIIPCRA and other officials, visited the Maa Kalijai APC in Harichandanpur block and praised its remarkable progress.

During the visit, the team interacted with members of the producer group and reviewed their cultivation practices, marketing strategies, and overall economic progress since joining the APC initiative. Women farmers narrated how the cluster approach, combined with access to modern farming technologies, has turned agriculture into a profitable enterprise.

At Maa Kalijai APC, bitter gourd has emerged as the “winner crop.” Around 110 women farmers are cultivating bitter gourd over 70 acres, using innovative practices such as low-cost single-line trellis, saplings from soilless nursery entrepreneurs, mulching, and irrigation support through solar borewells with drip systems.

Market access has also been streamlined through a Farmer Producer Company (FPC) promoted under the APC project, enabling farmers to sell directly to major markets in Cuttack, Jajpur, and Bhadrak. This direct linkage has eliminated middlemen, ensuring better prices for their produce.

The shift has been transformative. Earlier, women farmers earned only ₹6,000–10,000 annually from vegetable cultivation. Today, thanks to the APC model, most members of the group are earning over ₹1 lakh annually.

Impressed with this turnaround, the World Bank team expressed deep satisfaction over the performance of Maa Kalijai APC and advised other clusters to adopt this model to achieve higher output with lower input costs.