Around 80 groundnut farmers from Odisha will soon visit Gujarat to gain experience in cultivation and learn methods to increase the yield.

The trip will be sponsored jointly by Siksha “O” Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be University and Livelihood Alternatives.

The farmers, from Cuttack, Puri, Angul, Dhenkanal and Mayurbhanj districts, attended a special programme on the SOA campus on Saturday where Union minister for education Dharmendra Pradhan addressed them.

Pradhan said that though the soil of Odisha was more fertile than that of Gujarat, farmers in the western state were able to produce 40 lakh tonnes of groundnut per annum while Odisha could harvest only four lakh tonnes.

Security forces seize 160 IEDs in Bihar

Patna: Security forces led by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) seized more than 160 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during an anti-Maoist operation in Bihar’s Aurangabad district, officials said on Saturday.

The IEDs were fitted in steel cans and concealed in caves and beneath rocks in the hilly and forested region of the district.

The team led by the CRPF and the Bihar police first found 13 pressure IEDs at a Maoist hideout in the Laduiya Pahad area on Friday afternoon. And later recovered 149 such bombs, weighing about one kilogram each from the nearby areas. They were destroyed through controlled explosions.

A few days ago, a huge cache of arms and ammunition belonging to the Maoists were recovered.

DEV RAJ