BANGALORE: Concerned about the decline in agricultural growth, the Department of Agriculture has constituted a task force to draw up a short-term and long-term strategy to increase the area under cultivation as well as address region- and crop-specific constraints to accelerate growth in the sector.

The eight-member task force is headed by S.A. Patil, Vice-Chancellor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. Other members are Commissioner for Agriculture H. Shashidara; Director of Agriculture G. Prakash; former Secretary in the Irrigation Department Captain Raja Rao; B.R. Hegde, former director of Research, UAS, Bangalore; R.S. Deshpande, professor and head, Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation Unit, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore; M.N. Sheelavantar, Vice-Chancellor, UAS, Bangalore; and Narayanan, Director of Economics and Statistics, sources said. The task force is expected to submit a comprehensive report in four months.

The agricultural growth rate in the State during 2001-2005 was below two per cent of the State Gross Domestic Product (SGDP) against three per cent during 1995-2000. The national growth rate was 1.2 per cent against the target of four per cent up to 2005 of the Tenth Plan.

Production of foodgrains in the State declined sharply from 109.6 lakh tonnes in 2000-01 to 66.46 lakh tonnes in 2003-04. Production increased to 104.95 lakh tonnes in 2004-05 on account of the good monsoon. However, the growth rate is not satisfactory, sources said.

Decline

The share of agriculture declined from 34.29 per cent of the SGDP in 1994-95 to 22.36 per cent of SGDP in 2002-03. The task force has formed small teams to look into crop- and region-specific problems in the sector. Union Agriculture Secretary Radha Singh will visit Bangalore and hold consultations with the task force soon. The Centre has prepared a plan to achieve four per cent growth.

The constraints in achieving a higher growth rate as identified by the department are low water use efficiency and management, weak linkages between research and extension, limited credit access at reasonable rate of interest, insufficient post-harvest infrastructure, stagnancy in agricultural technology, the proneness of the northern region to drought and lack of crop diversification.

Weak support

Weak institutional and policy support has been singled out as the most important factor impeding the progress of drought-prone agriculture.

For enhancement of investments in research and development and agricultural extension, Karnataka Development Report (2005) stressed the need for mobilisation of Rs. 100 crores annually.

It is stated that the delivery of farm services in rural areas has been very poor. Strengthening of Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Raitha Samparka Kendras and establishment of biotechnology parks exclusively for marine resource development will help accelerate growth, experts said.

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