Organic farmers can now tour Cuba, Israel

 Farmer couples practising organic farming could get a chance to tour Cuba and Israel under the ‘Amrutha Bhoomi’ programme launched by the State government on Saturday.

The government will release Rs 82.98 lakh to each taluk to promote organic farming, spend Rs 14.25 crore for training farmers and send farmers to Cuba and Israel to learn more about farming techniques, at a cost of Rs two crore.

Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who formally launched the programme at the Banquet Hall in the Vidhana Soudha, said besides foreign trips, the farmers would be encouraged to tour taluks and districts under the ‘Saavayava Odanata’ scheme. He said as many as 26,400 farmers would be trained in organic farming.  The government has allotted Rs 200 crore to the Organic Mission this year. Bhimanagoud Patil and Annapurna of Kotyal village, Bijapur taluk, the couple who practise organic farming, presided over the programme.

Gobar gas plants, vermicompost units, micro-organism-induced compost plants, seed banks would be set up in all the taluks at a cost of Rs 146.04 crore benefiting about 3,000 farmers in each taluk. The 5.28-lakh farming families would bring four lakh hectares under organic farming, Shettar said. The chief minister said the Organic Mission had created 1,706 farmer groups. A sum of Rs two crore had been set aside for research activities and Rs five crore for food processing and value addition centres. 

‘Amrutha Dasoha’ shops will be set up across the State to promote organic food products and Vidhana Soudha too shall have one such shop. Agriculture minister Umesh Katti did not attend the programme as he was busy attending a religious programme in his house. Horticulture Minister S A Ravindranath and APMC Minister S K Bellubbi too were absent. Agriculture ministers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa were present.