<p>Karnataka will create history by presenting a separate agriculture budget, Agriculture Minister Umesh Katti said on Friday.<br /><br />Speaking to reporters here, Katti said the agriculture budget would include schemes and special allocations made for departments of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, agriculture, fisheries, water resources and cooperation. No other government in the past had ever thought of a separate agriculture budget in the State, he said.<br /><br />Katti said in the previous budget, the government had announced farm loans at three per cent interest. This time the government will reduce the interest rate further. As of now the ‘Bhoo Chetana’, a programme to increase soil fertility, is functional in 20 districts. The government intends to introduce the scheme in all districts. <br /><br />Besides, the Agriculture department has proposed a separate programme to benefit farmers belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. <br /><br />There are about 76 lakh agrarian families in the State, including eight lakh SC families and five lakh ST families. The department will provide facilities to families that own less than one hectare of land. The facilities include funds for tilling the ground, borewell under the Ganga Kalyana Scheme and two cows per family. <br /><br />The department’s target is to provide these benefits to 50,000 families each of the SC and ST communities in a year, he said. <br /><br />The minister said the government’s activities to promote organic farming yielded good results. So far 71,000 farmers have been practising organic farming. The government wants to encourage at least two lakh farmers take up organic farming.</p>
<p>Karnataka will create history by presenting a separate agriculture budget, Agriculture Minister Umesh Katti said on Friday.<br /><br />Speaking to reporters here, Katti said the agriculture budget would include schemes and special allocations made for departments of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, agriculture, fisheries, water resources and cooperation. No other government in the past had ever thought of a separate agriculture budget in the State, he said.<br /><br />Katti said in the previous budget, the government had announced farm loans at three per cent interest. This time the government will reduce the interest rate further. As of now the ‘Bhoo Chetana’, a programme to increase soil fertility, is functional in 20 districts. The government intends to introduce the scheme in all districts. <br /><br />Besides, the Agriculture department has proposed a separate programme to benefit farmers belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. <br /><br />There are about 76 lakh agrarian families in the State, including eight lakh SC families and five lakh ST families. The department will provide facilities to families that own less than one hectare of land. The facilities include funds for tilling the ground, borewell under the Ganga Kalyana Scheme and two cows per family. <br /><br />The department’s target is to provide these benefits to 50,000 families each of the SC and ST communities in a year, he said. <br /><br />The minister said the government’s activities to promote organic farming yielded good results. So far 71,000 farmers have been practising organic farming. The government wants to encourage at least two lakh farmers take up organic farming.</p>
