Southern States - Karnataka   

H.K. Patil favours district-wise farm policy

By Our Special Correspondent

GADAG DEC. 20. The Minister for Agriculture, H.K. Patil, said on Friday that he had plans to formulate district-wise agriculture policy.

Mr. Patil told this to presspersons after assuming charge as Minister for Agriculture in the presence of farmers at Shigli village in Shirahatti taluk of Gadag district.

Mr. Patil said agriculture policies were framed at the macro level. It was time to frame micro-level policies at the district level in view of agro-climatic factors. The schemes planned by the Department of Agriculture would be time bound.

He said the department would bring in a qualitative change in the attitude of farmers towards agriculture in the wake of drought for the past three years. One of the tasks would be to build confidence among farmers to face any crisis. Efforts would be made to look into pros and cons of new and traditional agriculture, and changes would be introduced to help farmers. The Government was not averse to encouraging traditional agriculture if it was more beneficial.

Mr. Patil said he had urged farmers of Shigli to take up organic farming as a drought proofing measure. The Government was ready to extend assistance and guidance to farmers if they adopted organic farming. The department would consider the demand by villagers to construct a barrage across the nalla at Shigli. Officials of the watershed wing of the department would visit the village next week to prepare a plan.

It was the duty of the wing to prepare plans to utilise rainwater. The Government would encourage rainwater harvesting for agriculture, Mr. Patil said.

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