BENGALURU: The Karnataka government is eyeing a new agricultural model in the state. The new technique which will introduce Israeli agricultural technology through private industry-farmer involvement will not only prove a win-win situation for all those involved but will also ensure significant improvement in agricultural yields, while using less water and fertilizers.
For this purpose, the state government plans to bring in a separate act for collective farming wherein a private investor or agency will assist farmers in forming a cluster of villages to help with relevant technologies that can eventually help achieve better yields. The profits will be shared between farmers and the private agency helping them.
Agriculture Minister Shivashankar Reddy told reporters that at present farmers were producing crops in their piece own land. But if they came forward in large numbers to cultivate land with help of private investors armed with better technologies, it could improve the agricultural yields. The land rights would be with the farmers, while the technological assistance will be from the company investing, he added.
The minister said it would be a win-win situation for both parties. "If they do not agree to this, farmers can form their own company and the state government will provide them with the technological assistance. The Israeli technology will be helpful for large farms and not small pieces of land,'' he said.
The proposal will be brought before the Cabinet sub-committee and later in the coming session. Manoj Rajan, director of the Israeli Agri mission said this was a tried-and-tested technology in which less water and less fertilisers are used while assuring more income to farmers.