The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Karnataka Agriculture Mission to be set up

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Saturday, Mar 15, 2008
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Karnataka

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Karnataka Agriculture Mission to be set up

Special Correspondent

Aim is to improve economic state of farmers

Decision taken not to allow more than one APMC yard in the jurisdiction of 25 km in Bangalore
The mission will become operational from the financial year 2008-09

BANGALORE: The State Government has decided to set up “Karnataka Agriculture Mission” to improve the economic condition of farmers in the State.

A decision has also been taken not to allow more than one APMC yard or private yard in the jurisdiction of 25 km in Bangalore city.

Addressing presspersons here on Friday after a meeting of the Executive Committee, Governor Rameshwar Thakur said the Government had accepted the recommendations of an official group which was constituted to suggest measures to improve farming in State. The mission would become operational from the financial year 2008-09.

The State Budget for 2008-09 had earmarked Rs. 1,565 crore to the farm sector. A sum of Rs. 250 crore had been earmarked for new farming initiatives in the coming year while the Centre had allocated Rs. 180 crore under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, the Governor said.

In the absence of an elected government, the mission headed by the Governor would take major decisions on execution of the programmes.

With 1,605 farmers committing suicide over a three-year period from 2004 till August 2007 in Karnataka and the agricultural sector’s annual growth rate touching a low of 0.61 per cent during the decade from 1993-94 to 2003-04, a high-level official panel has recommended adoption of a mission approach for the development of the farm sector.

The agriculture mission would comprise various agencies engaged in the field of agriculture with a specific mandate to work out strategies, schemes and programmes and implement them in a time-bound manner, Principal Secretary (Finance) M.R. Srinivasa Murthy said.

The 13-member official panel was constituted as a direct offshoot of the day-long dialogue held between representatives of farmers and the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in June last year under the chairmanship of Mr. Srinivasa Murthy.

In its report submitted to the Governor in December last, the panel suggested that the State’s own resources and funds available to the State under the National Agricultural Development Programme totalling Rs. 7,000 crore should be used over the next five years for developing the agricultural sector.

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