Barbil: JSPL Foundation, the social arm of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) has come forward to support the needy and struggling farming community in this global pandemic and distributed fertliser among them for the Kharif paddy cultivation.

About 60 marginal and Covid-hit farmers of nearby villages under Deojhar and Kandra gram panchayats of Keonjhar district have been supported for the summer crop in nearly 70 acres.

“Ahead of the sowing season, we were really worried about our kharif crop due to the outbreak of Covid-19 second wave, as lockdown could create some critical gap in farm input. Many of us have lost hope to continue farming this season. But this help from JSPL Foundation has really raised a hope among us”, said Pandu Munda of Murga-Daladiri village.

Besides, to overcome losses and increase crop yields, these farmers have also been facilitated with crop management and pest control techniques by a field officer of the State agriculture department, for timely intervention and guidance.

 “We are really thankful to JSPL Foundation for providing us crop management which will not only help us to yield more but boost us morally, because, we were incurring heavy losses due to our traditional cultivation methods,” said Gura Munda of Dampur village.

From Capacity Building of farmers to encouraging them for sustainable livelihood to enable them increase their incomes and profitability, JSPL Foundation has been supporting the farming community of this region. So far 5000-odd farmers of nearby villages under Deojhar, Kandra, Anseikala and Birikala gram panchayats have benefited from various initiatives and project interventions.