Vedanta recently distributed more than a thousand saplings of fruit bearing trees to Jharsuguda farmers for creation of backyard orchards in their homesteads. Conducted under the company’s farm-based sustainable livelihood program, Jeevika Samridhhi, the sapling distribution drive had a two-fold objective. Besides helping farmers increase household income selling the harvest, it also aimed at enouraging them to supplement their diet with organically grown nutritious fruits and vegetables from their own backyards.
Over 200 farmers received saplings of high-yielding varieties of papaya, drumstick, lemon, guava and Indian jujube for planting in their backyards. Alongside distribution, they were oriented on the basics of plantation technique, plant care, harvesting and marketing, and will continue to be supported by horticulture experts throughtout the process.
Sushil Kumar Dash, Secretary – Social Education for Women’s Awareness (SEWA), Kolabira, said, “As Vedanta’s implementing partner for the program, we are closely working with farmers of Siriapali, Gudigaon and Keldamal villages, helping them adopt more efficient methods of farming, learn better ways of land and water management, and gain technical know how by connecting them to agriculture and horticulture experts from Krishi Vigyan Kendra and Government of Odisha. Through Jeevika Samriddhi, we are helping the Jharsuguda farming community make their profession more remunerative in the long run.”
Smt. Soudamini Nayak, Sarpanch – Keldamal gram panchayat expressed her gratitude to Vedanta and SEWA, adding, “Farmers of Keldamalhave benefited immensely fromVedanta’s village interventions, getting agricultural resources, inputs and trainings, all of which have led to a marked increase in their household income.”
Appreciating Vedanta’s initiative, Duryodhan Pradhan, Team Leader – Forest Dept., Kolabira Block,noted that besides helping supplement farmers’ diet and income, addition of a thousand trees will also increase green cover of Jharsuguda’s rural belt.
Following sustained monsoons, over the past month, Vedanta also undertook plantation of nearly a thousand fruit bearing trees and medicinal plants such as mango, pomegranate, guava, lychee, neem, ashwagandha, giloy and tulsi, in and around plant premises.
Vedanta is India’s largest producer of metal, aluminium, operating a world-class 1.6 MTPA aluminium smelter and 3615 MW thermal power generation facility in Jharsuguda, Odisha. The only Indian smelter in the global ‘1 Million Tonne’ production and export club, Vedanta Jharsuguda is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications across core industries. With one of the largest technically qualified, diverse and vibrant workforces in the country, the company is working towards a sustainable and greener future for all by spurring emerging applications of aluminium, the ‘Metal of the Future’.
