The famed Krishi Mela of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, is set to go international as the university is poised to organise this year’s mela on an international scale tentatively from November 7 to 11 to mark its ongoing year-long golden jubilee celebrations.
This is the first time in the State that the Krishi Mela is being organised on an international level.
The annual event of Krishi Mela in which the university showcases the latest farm technologies, cropping patterns and research, among other things, has been growing in size due to its popularity among farmers spread over 17 districts coming under its jurisdiction.
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The previous mela, which was organised in 2011 at the national level, had become the country’s biggest farm event with nearly 11 lakh people thronging the venue.
20 lakh expected
The mela is set to grow even bigger this time as the university is expecting nearly 20 lakh farmers to attend the five-day event to be held on its sprawling campus in Bangalore.
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If that happens, this could as well turn out to be one of the prominent farm events in the world.
Overseas visitors
Vice-Chancellor of the university K. Narayana Gowda told The Hindu that they were expecting innovative farmers and researchers from about 20 countries to participate in the event. This would include visitors from Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, South Korea in addition to several European and African countries.
“About 1,000 visitors from abroad have confirmed their participation,” he said.
This year, the mela would focus on introducing innovative farm machinery for the present-day needs, especially the ones that could handle the requirements of individual or a small group of farmers, he said.
Another focus area is the value addition process that could not only increase the shelf life of farm produce, but also get remunerative prices.
“The international Krishi Mela will help our farmers to learn from the best practices and cropping patterns from across the world,” Dr. Gowda said.
Of course, the main intention is to help increase farmers’ incomes on a sustainable basis through innovative farming methods, he noted.
The Krishi Mela was not held in 2012 because of drought.