In a bid to restore normality to the State’s agricultural operations during the lockdown, the Agriculture Department on Tuesday launched an ‘Agri War Room’ in Bengaluru to attend to the problems and complaints of farmers and other stakeholders in the sector.
Agriculture Department director B.Y. Srinivas told The Hindu that the objective is to resolve problems in getting agricultural inputs and farm implements. Pointing out that farmers needed fertilizers, pesticides, farm implements, seeds and various other inputs to carry out their activities, he said the department had instructed all its joint directors in various districts to take steps to ensure that service providers open their sales units. These service providers, including shopkeepers, will be provided ‘green passes’ to operate during the lockdown.
Agriculture Minister B.C. Patil and Cooperation Minister S.T. Somashekhar reviewed these measures on Tuesday. The joint directors have been instructed by the department to work in coordination with Deputy Commissioners to ensure there is no shortage of harvesting equipment. They have been told to make arrangements to get them even from other States, barring Kerala.
Four officers will operate the war room in two shifts (8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.). The helpline numbers are 080-22212818 and 080-22210237.
Meanwhile, a release stated that the Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation authorities have been told to provide cold storage facilities for storing farm produce when it is not possible to get them to markets or sell them locally. Karnataka has a total storage capacity of 4,40,883 tonnes in 136 cold storage units, including 122 private ones.
