BENGALURU: Agriculture Minister Shivashankar Reddy on Friday said sowing activities in the state have been hit with the southwest monsoon arriving late in the state resulting in only eight per cent of sowing as against 27 per cent during normal monsoon across Karnataka.
Reddy told reporters that this year they had targeted sowing in 113.67 lakh hectares. But since monsoon is delayed, sowing rate has come down too. "During normal monsoon season, 18 lakh hectares would have been sown, but so far only 6.71 lakh hectares are sown. Annually the state gets 1,156 mm of rain. However, as on June 13, we were supposed to get 196.9 mm of rain, but received only 129.9 mm rain, which is 34 per cent lesser.” The minister, however, said situation may change for the better in the coming days as far as rains are concerned. He also clarified that there is no dearth of seeds or fertilisers.
On soil health cards, Reddy said once in two years soil health cards are being issued in a phased manner. In the first two phases, over 75 lakh health cards have been issued and this year they have allotted Rs 14.82 crore for the same. This apart, they have earmarked Rs 250 crore towards the implementation of percolation tanks across Karnataka.
The Union Ministry for Agriculture has convened a meeting with commissioners and secretaries of Agriculture Department from all the states next Tuesday to discuss Prime Minister's Fasal Bima Yojana.
"We had sent our officials to study the Bihar model insurance scheme, but it does not cover all the crops and is helping the insurance company more than the farmers. We felt PM's Fasal Bima Yojana scheme is better. We will discuss it with officials in the next meeting,'' Brijesh Kumar Dixit, Commissioner, Agriculture Department said.
Plan to integrate agricultural varsities
Bengaluru: The state government is planning to bring all agricultural colleges, institutes and universities under one ambit. Speaking to media persons on Friday Agriculture Minister Shivas-hankara Reddy said, "Like the Higher Education Council, the government plans to form a similar council for agricultural universities, including University of Agriculture Sciences, University of Horticultural Sciences, Fisheries University and many more.
At present, the Agriculture University teaches only an agricultural course while Horticulture University teaches a horticultural course. We wanted an integrated course that can be taught at these universities." The minister said this apart from the Ayyappan Evaluation Committee will look into infrastructure, academics, recruitment and research.