Minister for Agriculture B.C.Patil said here on Tuesday that there was no shortage of agricultural fertilizers or seeds in the State and there was adequate stock to meet the projected demand.
He was speaking at the Mysuru divisional level agricultural meeting which attended by senior officials from different districts under the Mysuru revenue division.
The Minister said the targeted sowing area for 2022-23 was 82.67 lakh hectares and there was a progress of 44 per cent as sowing had been completed on 36.47 lakh hectares so far. There was a demand for 5.38 lakh qunitals of seeds but the availability was 7.81 lakh quintals. As on July 4, 2022, 2.59 lakh tonnes of seeds had been distributed to the farmers while 1.40 lakh tonnes was stocked by the Raitha Samparka Kendras.
With regard to availability of fertilizers too the State was comfortably positioned and the projected demand was 26.76 lakh tonnes. As on July 4, 11.91 lakh tonnes of fertilizers of various grades had been distributed while there was 17.85 lakh tonnes of fertilizers stocked in godowns, said Mr.Patil.
In the review meeting the officials were instructed to give thrust and create greater awareness among farmers on the benefits of nano fertilizers to achieve higher output.
Shivayogi C. Kalasad, Secretary to the Government, Agricultural Department, said the Government was committed to the doubling of farmers’ income and had announced the establishment of secondary agricultural directorate towards which ₹5 crore had been released in the 2022-23 budget. This would be enhanced when the fund is utilised.
In a bid to give impetus to mechanization of agriculture, the officials were apprised of various measures taken by the government including setting up of technical committees. The role of the officials at the field and district levels was to be in touch with the agricultural universities and promote technology that would be useful to the farmers, said Mr. Kalasad.
He said on July 14 and 15, Agriculture Ministers of all the States will be in Karnataka and there will be a slew of topics related to agriculture and farming that will be discussed.
The officials were also told about the Amrita Vana programme which will be launched in Karnataka. Under this saplings have to be planted on a least 1 acre of gomal lands, deemed forest lands etc with emphasis on indigenous species so as to create a forest ecosystem.
The Minister said that natural farming was being encouraged through agricultural universities and horticultural institutes and so far 2 lakh hectares of land was under organic and natural farming and the State was third in terms of organic production.
The Minister said that during 2020-21 the State had achieved a record crop output of 160.28 lakh tonnes and the target for 2021-22 was pegged at 144.67 lakh tonnes.
Minister for Cooperation S.T.Somashekar, MLA G.T.Deve Gowda, chairmen of various corporations and boards, officials of agricultural department from different districts, were present.
