Survey to shed light on agriculture realities

The survey process initiated by the State government-constituted Organic Farming Mission has been completed and presently the inputs are being compiled at the taluk level. The complete state-level data will be released on June 28, says Mission Chairman A S Anand.

All the 52,000 families involved in the survey have volunteered to take up organic farming and have enrolled as members of the Karnataka Organic Farming Federation. All taluks have been covered except the three in Bangalore Urban district and Devanahalli taluk.
“This is the first time that integrated data on the sowing pattern taken up by farmers together with their financial and social conditions is being compiled. The data will serve in fine-tuning the government polices and schemes in the agriculture sector,” Anand said.
Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on green manure, crop rotation, biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests while limiting the use of synthetic fertilisers.

The survey has been divided into several parts. The first part gathers basic inputs on family and household data, while the second part focuses on the type of irrigation, if available, being utilised for agriculture.

The third part covers the type of crops sown by the farmers including cereals like paddy, ragi, maize, jowar and bajra, pulses like moong, urad, cowpea, field bean, horsegram, and oilseeds like groundnut, sunflower, castor and soyabeans. In all, it covers 47 varieties of crops. The details on the extent of sowing, output and marketing details have been gathered. The survey has also collected inputs on reaping pattern and storage. The last part of the survey gathers information on cattle availability, fertiliser and agricultural tools. Information on horticulture, floriculture, medicinal plants and agri-forestry has been compiled.

The Mission is in the process of distributing Rs 42.2 crore as support money for taking up organic farming for the 52,000 families. Only those who have infrastructure facilities to take up organic farming get monetary support. On an average, each family gets Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000.

The dispersal of support money is done by a specially constituted NGO at the taluk level. Each NGO will have a president, secretary and treasurer, besides 15 promoters.