The Hindu

Udupi, May 25: Home Minister V.S. Acharya said on Sunday that farmers should adopt modern technology in cultivation to get better returns.

He was speaking at a function to install the office-bearers of the Pragati Bandhu Self-Help Groups Federation of the Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) here.

Dr. Acharya said that the Government had come up with a scheme to bring dry areas under cultivation under guidance from the Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). “This scheme will be implemented in six districts in the first phase and will be subsequently extended to 20 districts,” he said. Although 56 per cent of the State’s population was still dependent on agriculture, its contribution to the State’s economy was just 19 per cent. The contribution of the service sector to the State’s economy was 59 per cent with only 22 per cent of the people engaged in this sector. The secondary sector contributed 22 per cent to the State’s economy. “We want people to shift from the primary sector to the secondary and service sectors,” he said.