Agriculture Research News: Establishment of New Agri Research Cell

Karnataka Agriculture Prices Commission (APC) established the Cost of Cultivation and Market Intelligence Cell (CCMIC) at University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences (UAHS), Shivamogga, commenced functioning on Saturday.

Prakash Kammaradi, Chairman, APC, after inaugurated the CCMIC on the UAHS campus. He said that similar centres are established at University of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru, Dharwad, Raichur and at University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot, too.

Last year, the commission had collected information on cost incurred for the cultivation of 17 major crops and had submitted a report to the State government in this regard.

To ensure the collection of the information in an authentic and scientific manner is the objective of establishment of CCMICs. The APC has planned to collect information on cost incurred for the cultivation of 31 crops in the year 2016-17 through CCMICs. Mr. Kammaradi said that a report will soon be submitted to the State government in this regard.

The CCMIC will collect information from 40 farmers from each district that comes under the jurisdiction of the university where it functions, on the cost incurred for preparation of land for tilling, purchasing inputs, removal of weeds, irrigation and h arvesting. The data would be scientifically processed and a report would be submitted to the State government in this regard, he said.

He said that, at present, the minimum support price (MSP) announced by the Central government for many crops, including ragi, is less than the cost of cultivation. But the information collected through CCMIC will help the government fix MSP in a scientific manner.

The CCMIC would also provide information to the farmers on prevailing trends in the market and also help farmers to explore new markets for their produces.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/