Chitradurga: Despite pumping enormous funds into the Agricultural sector, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), P.G. Chengappa lamented that due to the country's failure to register four per cent growth in agriculture as targeted in the 11th Five-Year Plan, the growth rate was still under two per cent.

Dr. Chengappa, based on a survey, painted a picture of the state of agriculture in the State recently while inaugurating an awareness programme on the National Agricultural Innovative Project aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity through the Integrated Farming System (IFS), organised by the UAS, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research and the Institute of Agricultural Technologies (IAT).

"About 90% of the farmers in the state are still debt-ridden. A farmer on an average owns merely 1.6 hectares of land which leads to an annual income that is much less than that of a daily wage worker. About 75 per cent of them are small and marginal farmers and nearly 75 lakh families are dependant on agriculture in the state."

Dr. Chengappa, while highlighting the vital factors upon which the growth of agriculture depended urged the need to provide farmers with advanced technology.

"Subsidised seeds and farming equipment should reach the intended beneficiaries while a comprehensive policy for the growth of farmers should be drafted," he said.

"The IFS project is implemented keeping in view the objective of increasing the increasing revenue, and thereby improving the livelihood of farmers in Chitradurga and Bidar districts," he added.

The Union Government launched the IFS project, which is a consortium of departments linked directly or indirectly to agriculture such as Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Sericulture, in 150 backward districts of the country

In order to generate income, Dr. Chengappa, under the scheme, said that, "The farmers would be encouraged to undertake alternative activities. We want to make this scheme as a model for others to replicate."

Chitradurga Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer Rangegowda said that the implementation of schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGREGA) had been a boon to farmers.

While stressing upon the need to introduce a process of evaluation of the success of the schemes, he said appreciated the schemes which had boosted the income of the farmers in the summer when otherwise they had no source of work or income.