Governor promotes Gujarat model

Hubli: Strongly backing the Gujarat model of development , Governor Vajubhai Vala on Tuesday advised Karnataka to learn from it and improve its own agricultural production.

Inaugurating the foundation day programme of the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad , the Governor who hails from Gujarat himself and is said to be a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, explained in detail how various schemes launched by the Gujarat government had helped  create awareness among farmers and suggested the university launch pilot projects for transfer of technology to  farmers using its programmes as model.

Revealing that all officials in Gujarat from the Chief Minister to taluk staff and agricultural scientists spent one month in villages every summer, he said they used this time to  take technology to farmers. The Governor also claimed that the  Soil Health Cards (SHCs) issued by Gujarat had helped streamline the cost of its agricultural production.

 “ Agricultural scientists should go to villages here too and spend time with farmers to guide them in ways to improve their productivity and reduce cost of production,” the Governor  advised, also suggesting that  more cold storages be set up in the state   to protect the crop grown by the farmers as was done in Gujarat by the state government.