Integrated approach to boost horticulture

The Karnataka government plans to initiate the integrated development approach with active farmer participation to boost horticulture output.

Addressing the Rashtriya Bagwani Kisan Mela at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research's at the Hessarghatta campus on Tuesday, R Srinivas, state horticulture minister, said that for an integrated approach, the state government plans to take up human resources development on a massive scale both within and outside the horticulture field.

By taking up such measures, the issue of quality will be addressed which may lead to higher revenue realisation, he added.

Calling upon the scientific community and development agencies, Srinivas said that farmers need advanced production technologies and post-harvest methods to cut down wastage.

He also stressed the need to network markets with collection centres located at the various taluk headquarters.

M Mahadevappa, former chairman, ASRB said that machinery for transferring technology has to gear up fast as today only 30 per cent of the technologies have been adopted in India by farmers.

Meanwhile, in countries like China, almost 80 per cent of the technologies, have already been adopted on the farms.

The two-day event has attracted over 2,000 farmers from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Pondicherry and scientists from research organisations. About 35 commercial stalls comprising seed companies, fertiliser, pesticides and over 20 government stalls have been set up.

The mela also screened videos of the best practices, Kisan Ghosti (scientist-farmer interface), field vists and release of souvenir, extension bulletins for the season in south Indian languages.