In a bid to revive the agriculture sector, the budget presented by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Thursday, has proposed to bring in a new agricultural policy.
The policy, among other things, would prescribe measures to encourage water security, concepts of land bank and mass cultivation, besides micro irrigation, processing of farm produce and marketing. Of course, the bigger intention has been to provide a status of industry to agriculture and horticulture, notes the budget.
The Chief Minister has also proposed to waive interest on defaulting farm loans obtained from cooperative bodies for purchase of farm equipment. A sum of ₹466 crore has been provided for the scheme, which is estimated to help about 92,000 farmers. He has also proposed to provide an interest exemption to the extent of 5 per cent on loans taken by areca growers upto a maximum loan amount of ₹2 lakh from cooperative bodies.
The State is also set to announce another policy which would prescribe crops suitable for specific regions based on recommendations by the Land Resources Registry, availability of water and soil health.
REWARD project
Karnataka being a State that has large tracts of drought-prone land, it appears that the budget has given importance to efficient utilisation of water as well as conservation of water and rainfed farming activities. This is evident with the State announcing that it would take up a World Bank funded new multi-state watershed area development project (REWARD) for the next six years to assist farming on 10 lakh hectares of land.
Similarly, a feasibility report is set to be prepared to turn the flood-irrigated command areas of various irrigation projects into Israel-model micro-irrigation systems, even as a target of bringing an additional one lakh hectares under irrigation has been set for 2020-21.
The budget has also announced that the Jalamrutha project will be implemented in 810 small watersheds covering four lakh hectares in the next three years to promote water conservation and rainwater harvesting.
This is in addition to the water audit programme to budget the water consumption and reduce water scarcity through “Jalagrama Calendar” to be taken up in all the villages. Similarly vented dams have been proposed in the coastal region and Western Ghats area.
Mobile clinics
As part of efforts to take farm extension services to farmers’ doorsteps, it has been proposed to launch “mobile agricultural health clinics” for soil and water testing besides providing various technical information relating to insecticides and diseases. These mobile units will visit the villages and take up on-the-spot testing of soil and water. But there is no mention of size of the scheme and financial allocation.
To address the issue of post-harvest losses in the horticulture sector, the budget has proposed to establish 10 cold storage units with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes each under public-private partnership model in the APMC yards at a cost of ₹75 crore.
It has also proposed to strengthen the HOPCOMS besides utilising the Krishi Rail scheme of the Centre to transport flowers and horticultural produce from Bengaluru to Delhi, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.
To encourage small and marginal farmers to shift to horticulture, it has announced an incentive of ₹5,000 per hectare to such farmers.
The cultivation of Teff, Chia and Quinoa too has been brought under “Raitha Siri” scheme under which incentive would be provided for cultivation of drought-resistant varieties like minor millets. Similarly, ₹200 crore has been earmarked for encouraging organic farming.
As many as 40 demonstration centres would be set up in different areas of the State to create awareness among farmers about best agricultural practices, new technologies and post-harvest management.
