'Farmers not benefiting from Organic Mission'

Raising the issue in the Upper House, Nanaiah said the BJP had created the organic mission only to benefit its supporters. The State government had been spending hundreds of crores of rupees in the last two years to popularise organic farming. However, the benefits of the mission are not trickling down to the farmers.

If the government is interested in supporting organic farmers it should directly hand over funds to the farmers, he said. He also pointed out that adopting organic farming would not fulfil the nation’s food requirement.

Agriculture Minister S A Ravindranath in his reply said in the initial stages the yield in organic farming was low when compared to agro-chemical based farming. But subsequently, the organic methods yield better results.

Poor quality seeds

The minister said the government had taken necessary measures to avoid sale of spurious sowing seeds in the State.

Instances of sale of spurious seeds have been reported in Haveri and Bellary.
He also said the price of seeds had risen this year as there has been a hike in the price of essential food products recently.