Krishna Byregowda, Minister for Agriculture, has said that considering the success of the ambitious Krishi Bhagya scheme, his ministry has asked the Union government to grant funds for the project.
He was speaking to mediapersons after inspecting the demonstration of new tractor-mounted sprayer given to farmers by the government on a rental basis under the Custom Hire Centre scheme here on Tuesday.
Claiming that Krishi Bhagya was one of the best comprehensive schemes introduced for dry land farmers, he said that the State government had conveyed the matter to the Union government, and has received positive response from the latter.
The Minister said that under the custom hire centre, the government has decided to grant one such tractor-mounted sprayer to all centres of the State. “At present, the State has 175 centres. This year, the government plans to add 300 more centres for the benefit of farmers. These farmers can hire modern agricultural machines on a nominal rent thereby saving both their time and money,” he said.
Mr. Byregowda said that at a time when the cost of cultivation was increasing due to heavy labour costs, the government renting machinery to farmers would reduce the cost of cultivation by at least 30 per cent.
On the sharp fall in onion prices that has caused great worry among farmers, Mr. Byregowda said that though the matter pertained to the Horticulture Department, he had asked the concerned Minister to look into it.
To a question on increasing the minimum support price (MSP) for jowar, Mr. Byregowda said that while the Union government was giving Rs. 1600/quintal MSP, the State government was adding Rs. 500 which made the MSP Rs. 2100/quintal.
“Meanwhile, the government is also giving an impetus to introducing high-yielding varieties of jowar seeds. The research in under way to cultivate seeds that could increase the production by at least 20 per cent.
Published - September 21, 2016 12:00 am IST
