The University of the Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, has launched a pilot project to popularise integrated farming and so far has covered 25,000 hectare land in North Karnataka.
Over 100 families have benefitted from integrated farming. The state government has earmarked Rs 13.5 crore for the same and soon the varsity will reach other parts of the region.
UAS V-C R R Hanchinal, said, the varsity has come up with a new method to generate revenue from barren lands. Precision farming is the key word and it has been taken up on an experimental basis in Haveri district. He said, the farmers in Tamil Nadu who have practiced this method have been earning Rs 17 lakh per acre per annum and this could be taken up in Karnataka too. Proper water management needs to be done to achieve the goal, he informed.
Addressing a state-level meeting of Nabard officers here, Hanchinal said, Nabard and the department of watershed could chip in by helping farmers enhance food productivity as food productivity has seen a retreat in recent years. Nearly, 80 per cent of cultivable land in India is rain-fed. Against a total of 142 million hectares where foodgrains are grown, only 60 million hectares had been irrigated in the last six decades, he observed.
Stating that loopholes in the post-harvest technology need to be plugged, Hanchinal said, nearly 25 per cent of foodgrains were rotting due to unscientific storage system. Distributing quality seeds would further enhance the food production by 15 per cent.
