The Hindu : Proposal on farm varsity gathering dust

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 24, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Proposal on farm varsity gathering dust

By Our Staff Correspondent

Raichur April 23. The proposal to set up an agricultural university in Raichur has not taken off for the past three years with the expert committee concerned yet to submit its report to the Government.

Other than dry-land cultivation, rain-fed and lift irrigation, more than 10 lakh hectares of land have irrigation facility in Raichur, Gulbarga, Bidar, Bellary, and Koppal districts. Irrigation facilities have been extended in these districts under the command areas of the Tungabhadra and the Krishna and their tributaries. Some of the dry-land tracts in these districts have been covered under lift irrigation schemes.

Paddy, cotton, and oilseeds along with horticultural crops are cultivated on a large scale in Raichur, Koppal, and Bellary districts while Gulbarga and Bidar districts cultivate cereals and pulses.

Although Raichur District has been identified as the most backward area among all districts in the region, it is far ahead of others in the field of agriculture. Around 1.56 lakh hectares of land in Lingsugur, Deodurg, and Raichur taluks in the district are likely to come under irrigation the Narayanapura Right Bank Canal (NRBC) under the Upper Krishna Project (UKP) is completed.

In recent years, farmers in the Hyderabad Karnataka region have been facing many difficulties because of lack of proper guidance in adopting cropping pattern, lack of high-yield variety seeds, and pest control.

Extensive research in agriculture, adoption of modern techniques, and assured availability of high-yield seeds would help usher in a revolution in this region.

The establishment of an agricultural university would help handle such problems, thus improving the economy in the Hyderabad Karnataka region.

In this direction, experts from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, have mooted a plan to establish a separate agricultural university in Raichur. In 1999, the elected representatives from the Hyderabad Karnataka region urged the Government to set up agricultural university in Raichur. A delegation of elected representatives and MPs from the Hyderabad Karnataka region met the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, and submitted a proposal to the Government to consider the proposal seriously as Raichur had the infrastructure.

They said while the Gulbarga Univeristy and the Kannada University were functioning in Gulbarga and Bellary districts, there was no institution of higher education in Raichur. The Government recently sanctioned a veterinary university for Bidar and a women's university for Bijapur. The establishment of an agricultural university in Raichur would set right this imbalance.

They pointed out that 800 acres of land was available in the existing Agricultural Engineering University in Raichur and 700 acres of land was available at the Central-State Farm in Sindhanoor taluk.

Already, an agricultural college, a regional research centre, and an agricultural science centre were functioning in Raichur.

The Chief Minister then constituted an expert committee, headed by S.A.Patil, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, to study the proposal.

The committee studied the proposal and concluded that it was feasible to set up an agricultural university in Raichur. However, it has not submitted a report to the Government in this regard.

Recently, a delegation that included H.G.Ramulu, Koppal MP, A.Venkatesh Naik, Raichur MP, and N.S.Bose Raju, Manvi MLA and Chairman of the Hyderabad Karnataka Development Board, along with the district in-charge ministers of Koppal and Raichur, met the Chief Minister and urged him to speed up the process.

The matter was also referred to the Agriculture Minister who took it up with the committee. However, the committee has been maintaining silence.

The elected representatives of the region have now decided to take up the matter with the Additional Chief Secretary, who is holding a review meeting on April 25 and 26.

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Proposal on farm varsity gathering dust