Use technology to tackle drought, says Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa

BENGALURU: Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa has called for the use of advanced technologies to provide long term solution to deal with drought, as was causing widespread distress, especially in rural areas.

He said this on Thursday during his address at a two-day national conference organised by Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) and state agriculture department on best practices adopted in drought mitigation measures. Experts from 14 different states attended the meet.

He lamented that even after spending crores to deal with drought nothing substantial has been achieved. "Karnataka has faced drought many times in the past. Apart from affecting farmers, it also poses serious threat to food security and economic condition of the state," he added.

He pointed out that in the past 15 years, state has witnessed drought 13 times and batted for use of advanced technologies and scientific methods to deal with drought.

In his address, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byregowda said that drought has to be taken seriously it impacts food production by 25 percent as per centre's latest Economic Survey and is a bane on the farm sector.

"There is a need to look at drought from the grassroots level. And it has to be approached with short, mid-term and long term measures." He also suggested a change in the crop pattern followed by our farmers and insisted on shifting attention towards millets.

During the occasion a book on best practices adopted by KSNDMC was released.