The Agriculture Department has decided to supply sowing seeds of short-duration crop varieties to farmers in the wake of the delay in the onset of monsoon in the State, according to Agriculture Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy.
The Minister, who held a meeting with senior officials of the Agriculture Department on the issues related to the supply of fertilizers and sowing seeds to farmers in the wake of several areas of the State witnessing good rains in the last few days, told media persons that sowing seeds of short-duration crop varieties such as ragi, maize and horse gram would be made available to farmers.
The Minister said the government had 14 lakh tonnes of fertilizers and one lakh tonnes of sowing seeds. Pointing out that the State had witnessed only 53% sowing so far as only 43 lakh hectares of the targeted 82 lakh hectares had been sown, he expressed confidence that the sowing would touch 100% in the next 15 days due to good rains now.
He also noted that the Agriculture Department had decided to shut Micro Irrigation Corporation and Karnataka Agro Industries Corporation which are in the red and their staff would be merged with the Agriculture Department.
