AgriNation News Network

Bengaluru| 17 Jan 2018

To enhance farm productivity and ensure better prices for farmers, Karnataka is focussing on using technology in agri sector. The state government is encouraging start ups that are promoting technologies to eliminate middlemen in selling agri produce and provide the weather and other information.

To address the technology gap in production and marketing, Karnataka’s agri minister Krishna Byre Gowda said, “The government is in talks with the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) for starting a centre for excellence to boost agricultural start-ups and provide the requisite technology to increase farmers revenue and production capacity”.

Minister also said, “The NCBS will provide much-needed hand-holding for startups and give companies a direct link with farmers.”

The state government in association with ICRISAT and Microsoft will also be developing an agricultural commodity price forecasting model. This will help farmers to fetch predict prices for their produce. The project is expected to benefit at least 10,000 farmers this year.

ICRISAT and Microsoft are also building advisories for fertiliser and pesticide use, and for harvest and post-harvest practices, for each region, depending on its specificities.