Minister feels need to increase farm land holding through lease system

Stressing the need to overcome the problem of land fragmentation which is a hindrance to use modern technology in agriculture, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda has opined that there is need for bringing some relaxation in rules to allow getting farming land on lease, so that one can take up cultivation in a bigger land which is essential to adapt technology and to increase productivity.

Delivering a talk on 'Quantum leap: Agri and agri-tech' at a seminar organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Hubballi chapter here on Friday evening, he lamented that India is lagging behind in adapting new technology in the farming sector, mainly due to fragmentation of land, and without using technology, increasing productivity and income of farmers is hardly possible.

Without increasing productivity by using the technology, we cannot compete in the global market also. Unfortunately, many government schemes for agriculture are driven by the emotions, and are not practical. The sense of urgency to adapt technology to increase productivity is also not seen, he lamented.

Karnataka has 10 agro-climatic zones, and has diversity in crops throughout the year. Moreover, Karnataka is the best investment-friendly State. This makes Karnataka an ideal place for setting up food-processing industries, the minister noted.

Though investments are coming, jobless growth is being experienced due to automation and artificial intelligence. Job creation rate is coming down even in the IT sector. At this juncture, innovative entrepreneurship is very essential not only to utilise opportunities available and to create jobs, but also boost the economy of the country, he added, stressing the importance of achieving excellence in whatever we do.

MLA Aravind Bellad, MLC Shrinivas Mane, TiE Hubball chapter President Sandeep Bidasaria, Vivek Nayak, Shashidhar Shettar, and others were present.