Bhubaneswar: Odisha is set to strengthen its agriculture administration with more officers at the senior, district and block levels following the state Cabinet’s approval of a restructuring of the Odisha Agriculture Services Cadre.
The restructuring will expand several supervisory positions while reducing the number of entry-level posts, without changing the overall sanctioned strength of the cadre.
At the top level, Additional Director of Agriculture posts will rise from two to six, while Joint Director of Agriculture (L-I) positions will increase from seven to 12.
The biggest increase will be at the district and sub-district levels. The number of Chief District Agriculture Officer/Joint Director of Agriculture (L-II) posts will go up from 33 to 45, while Agriculture District Officer/Deputy Director of Agriculture positions will increase substantially from 102 to 150.
The government will also increase Block Agriculture Officer/Assistant Director of Agriculture posts from 380 to 400, strengthening the department’s field-level supervisory network.
The expansion has been offset by a reduction in the base-level Assistant Agriculture Officer posts, which will come down from 789 to 700. As a result, the total sanctioned strength of the Agriculture Services Cadre will remain unchanged.
According to the government, the restructuring has been necessitated by the growing workload of the Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Department following the rollout of several schemes and programmes for farmers.
The revised hierarchy is also expected to improve internal career progression by creating more promotional avenues for agriculture officers. The government sees the restructuring as a way to strengthen administrative coordination and make delivery of farmer-oriented services faster and more effective.
The new cadre structure will come into effect once the rules framed for the restructuring are notified in the Odisha Gazette.
