Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shobha Karandlaje on Tuesday said that the Central government will facilitate marketing agriculture produce, export as well as food processing in a large scale.
The government has created a ₹1 lakh crore corpus for Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to encourage individuals, Self Help Groups, cooperatives, farmers’ collectives and others to create infrastructure for marketing, storage, processing and other allied activities for agriculture produces, Ms. Karandlaje said. She was speaking after launching mechanised paddy cultivation (Yanthrashree) and rejuvenation of fallow agriculture fields scheme of Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) at Koodli village near Barkur in Udupi district. The scheme this fiscal aims to target 20,000 hectares of land in Karnataka
The Minister said that the country has not only become self sufficient in food, but was growing excess because of efforts by governments and individual farmers. During the two years of COVID-19 pandemic, farmers grew nearly 364 million tonnes of vegetables and fruits and 314 million tonnes of food produces. As such, the Centre was keen on strengthening agriculture marketing and food processing, she said.
Ms. Karandlaje said there was huge demand for processed coconut products, including coconut milk and its powder, coconut oil, cocopeat etc., abroad. While Tamil Nadu and Kerala have taken lead in exporting coconut products, Karnataka was way behind and serious efforts should be made to expand the market. Then only coconut grown in Karnataka could get good market, she added.
Dharmasthala Pattadhikari D. Veerendra Heggade said that plenty of schemes were available for agriculture and one has to make best utilisation of such schemes. It was not good to leave agriculture fields fallow, he said adding mechanised and scientific farming could make paddy cultivation profitable.
Minister for Social and Backward Classes Welfare Kota Srinivas Poojari distributed nursery trays to farmers while farmers who rejuvenated fallow lands were felicitated. Udupi MLA K. Raghupathi Bhat released Yanthrashree brochure. Former Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake presented grant letter to Byndoor Paddy Farmers Federation while Joint Director of Agriculture Kempe Gowda felicitated farmers who have raised nurseries.
Yadthadi Gram Panchayat President Savitha Devadiga, SKDRDP Executive Director L.H. Manjunath and others were present.
