Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday inaugurated three centres of excellence (COEs) in the State to take forward Israeli technologies in the field of horticulture under the Indo-Israel Agricultural Project (IIAP).
The COEs are coming up at Kolar for mango, Bagalkote for pomegranate and Dharwad for vegetables, an official statement said. The COE is an advanced and intensive agricultural farm that generates knowledge, demonstrates best practices and trains farmers based on Israeli novel agro-technology tailored to local conditions, the statement read.
The CoEs would help farmers choose and adopt the technology that suits them best, with the goal of doubling their income, it added. Speaking on the occasion, Yediyurappa said there was lot of scope for adoption of new technologies in crop production and post-harvest management to increase the production and productivity of the horticulture produce.
In his address, Tomar said the centres have the capacity of 50,000 grafts production and 25 lakh vegetables seedlings production annually. He added that about 20,000 farmers have visited the COEs to gain knowledge about the modern cultivation practices in horticulture.