Karnataka Agricultural Policy - Institute for Social and Economic ...

Karnataka Agicultural Policy 2006
New technologies need to be tested under localized situations and suitably modified wherever
necessary for adoption by farmers. Linkage already developed between agricultural research and
extension under NARP and NAEP will be further strengthened.
Release of technology particularly of varieties/hybrids should be preferably restricted to such of
those which have marked improvement over the existing ones with not less than 20-25%
increase in productivity levels. The time taken for release of new varieties should be reduced.
Useful results from other States should be quickly screened and where suitable, will be adopted
in the State
11 Horticulture: Key to Growth in Rainfed Regions
11.1 Horticulture provides excellent opportunity to raise the income of farmers even in dry tracts. A
significant shift towards Horticulture is evident in the state with the increase in area and therefore
production. Horticulture provides higher unit productivity and greater scope for value addition and
this enterprise is spreading throughout the length and breadth of the State. In Karnataka, horticultural
crops are grown on 16.30 lakh hectares and provide annual production of 95.81 lakh tons. The area is
13 per cent of the net cultivated area of the State. The total income generated from the sector
accounts to over 40 per cent of the total income derived from the combined agriculture sector and
that is 17 per cent of the GDP of the State. Karnataka is already in the forefront in respect of area and
production of many horticultural crops, but there still exists significant potential to increase area
under fruit crops in the North and North-Eastern Dry Regions of the State with crops like mango,
grapes, sapota, lime/lemon, pomegranate, fig and papaya. In the Eastern Dry Zone, species that are
low water requiring such as mango, grafted jack, anona, amla, wood apple and jamun should be
selected. Crops selected for these areas should be hardy, and tamarind, anona, jamun, rose apple,
grafted cashew, ber and wood apple meet this description. The non-arable areas in North- Eastern
and northern dry zones are suitable for ber, tamarind, wood apple and anona; the central, southern
and eastern dry zones are suitable for mango, jack and amla. In the Transition zones, cashew, sapota,
jack, wood apple, amla and jamun are better suited. The hilly zone is suitable for pineapple, cashew
and jack. Bread fruit, rose apple, komarach and garcinia are specially suited to the non-arable areas
of the coastal zone (zone 10). There is a considerable gap in the productivity of mango (8.2 MT/ha),
banana (25.6 MT/ha), sweet orange (7.2 MT/ha), lime/lemon (4.5 MT/ha), mandarin (9.8 MT/ha)
and guava (7.4 MT/ha) between Karnataka and other high productivity states. Therefore, there is
44