GULBARGA: Union Minister of State for Planning, M.V. Rajasekharan, on Saturday said the State would have to strive to recover lost ground in agriculture, irrigation and watershed development.

Talking to presspersons here, Mr. Rajasekharan said Karnataka was one among the leading States in agriculture, irrigation and watershed development. But it had fallen back now and there was a need to improve its performance by utilising the available funds fully.

He said the State was yet to complete long pending irrigation projects and as per information available, there were 36 projects to be completed despite the assistance provided by the Union Government under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme. The completion of the irrigation projects would benefit farmers in the command areas and improve their living conditions and also give a boost to agriculture yield.

Mr. Rajasekharan said the State should accord top priority for watershed development, particularly in the dry zones. He said there was a need to retain and protect the quality of soil, particularly in the irrigation belt where large tracts of land had been affected by salinity because of unscientific use of water.

Mr. Rajasekharan said the Planning Commission had laid stress on improving agriculture yield. The decline in agriculture production was one of the major reasons for the country not achieving the target eight per cent GDP. Agriculture production has come down from four per cent to 1.9 per cent and efforts should be made for improving this sector.

He lamented that villagers continued to live without basic facilities such as good road connectivity and drinking water.

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