Karnataka farmers' agricultural practices 'best in the country': Shivraj Chouhan

Bengaluru: Union Minister of Agriculture and  farmers Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was all praise for agricultural practices adopted by farmers in Karnataka, and called them the “best in the country”. 

“Farms in Karnataka are the best in the country. The techniques used by farmers here are so well-thought-out and modern, they leave me awestruck,” he said at the launch of the Viksit Krishi Sanklap Abhyan (VKSA) at the ICAR-IIHR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research here on Sunday. 

The programme attracted more than 500 farmers from various parts of Karnataka. 

It began with site visits around farms on the ICAR-IIHR campus where participants got to see the various biologically modified flora developed by the scientists of ICAR. This was followed by a briefing on the basics of the VSKA development programme. 

The VKSA is a development programme launched by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. 

It is aimed at eradicating major issues that farmers face in terms of poor cultivation due to plant disease, poor soil condition and rising input costs. It also aims to build a bridge between scientists and farmers by having them work hand in hand during each step-by-step process to produce disease-resistant breeds of flora that can survive in harsh conditions of the said farm’s locality. 

The programme kicked off with 1,896 teams interacting with 8,95,944 farmers across 8,188 villages. In Karnataka, more than 70 interdisciplinary teams of scientists, agricultural and allied department officials visit and interact with farmers on a daily basis to record the feedback from the farmers in the developments that need to be made. 

Yelamma, who owns a small marigold farm in Chikkaballapur district, told DH: “I have always been a bit wary of the hybrid crops because I thought them to be unsafe but after seeing the crops here it has changed my views of them.”  A vegetable farmer near Tumakuru had this to say: “I got to know about some better alternatives to pesticides that I use. I would like to try that out on my farm, I am very happy I came here.” 

MPs C N Manjunath, K Sudhakar, MLA S R Vishwanath, Raghavendra Bhatta, Deputy Director General (Animal Sciences); Sanjay Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticulture Sciences); ICAR-IIHR Director Dr Tusar Kanti Behera and others were present on the occasion.