The curious case of Mysuru’s vanishing farmland

August 09, 2015 12:00 am | Updated March 29, 2016 02:07 pm IST - MYSURU:

The Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission has been stressing on boosting ragi production in the State.— Photo: M.A. Sriram

The Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission has been stressing on boosting ragi production in the State.— Photo: M.A. Sriram

Believe it or not, 1.65 lakh hectares of fertile farmland have vanished in Mysuru district in a short span of 10 years.

The production of ragi (finger millet), a staple diet in southern Karnataka, has dropped substantially as 64,000 hectares of land, where ragi was predominantly grown, had vanished. Even the cultivation of horse gram and paddy had dropped by 33,000 hectares and 18,000 hectares respectively.

The area of horticulture production had gone up by 20,000 hectares in the same period.

The Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission has managed to collect these statistics that describe the state of affairs of agriculture in the district.

The commission, which is studying changing trends in cropping pattern in the State, has found that the production of maize, Bt cotton, betel nut and sugarcane has gone up substantially while the production of ragi and jowar (sorghum) has dropped significantly.

Incidentally, a support price of Rs. 2,000 a quintal for ragi (Rs 1,550 is the Centre’s share) and Rs 2,300 a quintal for jowar (Rs 1,500 is the Centre’s share) had been announced.

Commission chairman Prakash Kammaradi, who was in Mysuru on Saturday, said that the State had been contributing to the MSP to instill confidence among ragi and jowar growers.

In Mysuru district alone, 1.80 lakh tonnes of ragi had been purchased at the support price. “If the farmland vanishes like this, imagine the situation in the next 10 years,” he said.

Tobacco production had gone up by 16,000 hectares in the district, which is one of the top tobacco growers in south India.

Mr. Kammaradi said that 2 lakh tonnes of ragi had been purchased from farmers to distribute among the beneficiaries under the Anna Bhagya scheme in southern Karnataka. “The yield per acre must go up by at least 10 quintals to support the government scheme,” he said.

Mr. Kammaradi said, “Let the mission of boosting ragi production start from Mysuru.”

Joint Director of Agriculture M. Mahanteshappa said that five new clusters had been formed in 500 hectares to boost ragi production in the district.

New varieties of the crop had been introduced in all taluks except T. Narsipur. The new varieties had given yield between 10-12 quintals per acre. “We have set a target to increase the area of production by at least 60,000 in the next four years,” he added.

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