The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Rain-fed crop output may fall

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 30, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Rain-fed crop output may fall

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The below normal rainfall in May and June has resulted in sowing being taken up in only 63 per cent of the rain-fed area this year. This could bring down the cotton, green gram, black gram, soyabean, jowar and bajra yields, the Commissioner for Agriculture, H. Shashidhar, said here on Wednesday. However, farmers have been advised to go in for crops such as groundnut, tur, corn, bajra, sunflower and sugarcane, and this will increase the yield of the crops, he told presspersons.

The State is yet to recover from four years of drought, but it has minimised the losses of small and marginal farmers mainly through the seed subsidy programme for which Rs. 32.34 crores were earmarked. About 3.23 lakh quintals of seeds of 13 varieties will be distributed among farmers in all 176 taluks at 25 per cent subsidy during the kharif season this year.

The Government issued orders on June 25 to enhance the subsidy for seeds to 50 per cent, and allocated an additional Rs. 20 crores. Mr. Shashidhar said the department is preparing a list of farmers who have purchased seeds at 25 per cent subsidy from April 1 this year, and the difference will be paid to them from August.

There are 1,100 outlets, including raitha sahaya kendras, from where farmers can purchase seeds.

As much as 19,206 quintals of seeds has been distributed and the subsidy value is Rs. 1.95 crore.

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