Karnataka government urged to encourage cooperative farming in unused paddies

Farmers and elected associates from Dakshina Kannada district have urged the Karnataka governing administration to stimulate cooperative farming functions in the unused paddy fields in the district.

Speaking at a review meeting conducted by Karnataka Agriculture Minister BC Patil in Mangaluru on Tuesday, Rajesh Naik, Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Bantwal, claimed that a sizeable part of farmers with compact land holdings have not been cultivating paddy in their fields for numerous a long time. They sense it is uneconomical for them to cultivate paddy in compact land holdings.

The Dakshina Kannada district, which was when self-sufficient in paddy cultivation, is now relying on other districts to meet up with its wants. The governing administration should perform a study of this sort of unused paddy fields in the district and stimulate fascinated teams of farmers to acquire up cooperative farming in this sort of unused paddy fields, he extra.

Nalin Kumar Kateel, Member of Parliament from Dakshina Kannada, supported Naik’s views.

Reverse migration

Referring to the implications of Covid-19 on the farming sector, Prabhakara Mayya, a farmer from Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, claimed that numerous youngsters from rural locations, who experienced still left for city centres in lookup of greener pastures, are now coming again to their roots. Many this sort of youngsters are looking for his steering on organizing their long term in farming.

In this sort of a predicament, the governing administration should stimulate farmers to acquire up cooperative farming in unused paddy fields. An added 250 hectares of land can be brought beneath paddy cultivation in Dakshina Kannada district with this sort of an initiative, he claimed.

One more farmer who attended the meeting urged the governing administration to perform a village-stage study of unused paddy fields in the district.

The Minister questioned the Agriculture Office officers in Dakshina Kannada to perform a study of this sort of unused paddy fields in the district so that further actions can be taken on their productive utilisation.

The Minister also claimed that the Point out governing administration will urge the Centre to convey functions similar to paddy cultivation beneath the MGNREGA programme.