The responsibility of educating, guiding and diverting farmers towards a change in crop pattern lies on governments, to prevent farmers from suffering losses by taking up cultivation of only traditional crops, Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy said.
A nine-member team led by Mr. Niranjan Reddy including director of Horticulture L. Venkatram Reddy and Vice-Chancellor of Sri Konda Laxman Telanagana State Horticultural University Neeraja Prabhakar visited Mysuru and Ramanagara (Karnataka) and Hosur (Tamil Nadu) on Saturday to study the best practices in sericulture, bamboo culture and food technology.
As part of their three-day visit, the team had already studied cultivation of sandalwood, vegetable and fruit crops in hydroponic and poly-house methods.
On Saturday, they visited the bamboo research centre of Gromore Biotech Ltd. near Hosur, the country’s biggest cocoon market at Ramanagara and studied mulberry cultivation at Kesturu in Mandya district. The team also had a meeting with director of Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute Pankaj Tewary.
At Hosur, bamboo scientists explained to the visitors about the huge demand for the grass variety crop in paper and ethanol blend making. The scientists explained that once planted, bamboo would give an income for 60 to 70 years from fourth year onwards. Bamboo cultivation would give ₹1.2 lakh to ₹1.6 lakh per acre per year as the yield would be 40 tonnes per acre.
The Minister stated that his interaction with chief of Gromore Biotech N. Barati inspired him to take up bamboo cultivation in his own fields.
