Odisha is located on the east coast of Indian Republic. It is the ninth largest state of Indian Republic. It is located between the parallels of 17.49′N and 22.34′N latitudes and meridians of 81.27′E and 87.29′E longitudes. It is bounded by the Bay of Bengal on the east; Madhya Pradesh on the west and Andhra Pradesh on the south. It has a coast line of about 450 kms. It extends over an area of 155,707 square km accounting about 4.87 of the total area of India.

There are four groups of rivers which flow through Orissa into the Bay of Bengal. They are:

• Rivers that have a source outside the State (The Subarnarekha, The Brahmani & The Mahanadi).
• Rivers having a source inside the State (The Budhabalanga, The Baitarini, The Salandi & The Rushikulya).
• Rivers having a source inside the Orissa, but flow through other states (The Bahudu, The Vansadhara & The Nagavali).
• Rivers having a source inside Orissa, but tributary to rivers which flow through other states (The Machkund, The Sileru, The Kolab & The Indravati).

Agro Climatic Zones

• North western plateau
• North central plateau
• North eastern coastal plain
• North eastern coastal plain
• Eastern ghat high land
• South eastern ghat
• Western-undolating zone
• Western-central table land
• Mid-central table land

The standard of living in the state has been below the national average since 1950-1951. After 2004-2005 this rate reversed and state per capital income started rising and gap of per capita has reduced steadily. Typically, economic activities are grabbed into 3 broad sectors namely, primary, secondary and tertiary.

The Primary sector includes agriculture and allied sector like agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, fishery, mining and quarrying. Secondary sector includes electricity, gas, water supply and construction sector. Tertiary sector includes service industry and public administration.

Odisha’s economy has been classified as agricultural, industrial and service based. The economy is of largely agricultural and less industrial and service sector. Despite of annual average growth rates achieved by different district from 2000–2001 to 2006–2007, Jajpur district reported height growth rate of 11.7 and Marakangiri lowest at 2.6%.

The State has about 64.09 lakh hectares of cultivable area out of total geographical area of 155.711 lakh hectares, accounting for 41.16 percent.  Total cultivated area is about 61.50 lakh hectares.  About 40.17 lakh hectares of cultivable area has acidic soil and approx. 4.00 lakh hectares suffers from salinity. About 3.00 lakh hectares of cultivable area suffers from water logging. Agriculture contributes about 26% in the State Gross Domestic Product (SGDP). About 65% of the workforce depends on agriculture for their employment. The average size of holding in the State is 1.25 ha.  The small and marginal farmers constitute about 83% of the farming community. The State is divided into 10 Agro-climatic zones on the basis of soil structure, humidity, elevation, topography, vegetation, rainfall and other agro climatic factors.

The average rainfall in the State is 1452 mm, of which about 80% is confined to monsoon months (June-September).  The total irrigation potential created is 27.63 lakh hectares in Kharif and 13.31 lakh hectares in Rabi. The total food grain production in the State during 2007-08 is estimated to be 92.13 lakh tones which is approx. 4.06 percent of national food grain production.  Rice is the main crop of the State. Odisha is bestowed with variety of agro-climatic conditions favourable for the development of horticultural crops. Horticulture provides excellent opportunity to raise the income of farmers even in dry tracks.  Since income derived from horticulture per hectare of land is generally higher than in cereals and pulses, the State will exploit the field potential for expanding the area under horticulture. The area under horticulture can be doubled with appropriate promotional policies and cropping patterns.  Importance of dry land horticulture as a supplementary source of income to the farms will be promoted.