Karnataka - Gulbarga   

UAS to have godowns to store foodgrains

T.V. Sivanandan

GULBARGA: The State Government proposes to open hi-tech godowns in the two Universities of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Dharwad and Bangalore for the storage of foodgrains and smaller godowns with chilling facilities in villages in a phased manner.

Agriculture Minister Bandeppa Kashempur told The Hindu here on Tuesday said that the godowns in the universities would have a capacity to store more than 50,000 bags. Farmers would be allowed to make use of these godowns for a nominal payment. The Government also planned to open seed banks in all villages to end the dependence of farmers on seeds from the market.

Mr. Kashempur said seed banks in villages would enable farmers to get good quality seeds at a reasonable price and would end the menace of spurious and substandard seeds.

Asked about the charge that multinational seed companies were using manpower and technology available in the State's agriculture universities and research centres for their research and development activities in the guise of funding research projects, the Minister said he was not aware of any such practice. However, he would discuss the issue with the vice-chancellors concerned he said.

Strict instructions would be given to the vice-chancellors not to allow transfer of technology developed by university scientists to the multinational companies. Mr. Kashempur said he was not opposed to exchange of knowledge between such companies or foreign countries with the universities in exchange programmes, but this should not give room for transfer of technology developed by the universities.

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