Bangalore, Feb 9: The farmers from the State can now tour either Israel or China this year. Nearly 536 farmers visited China last year to study modern cultivation techniques. 

The State government has selected Israel for the study tour as the country with scarcity of water resources adopted minor irrigation techniques much earlier and the farmers used recycled and purified waste water to irrigate the agriculture land. Major crops of the country are vegetables, cotton and fruits.

Agriculture Department Joint Director M Raju said Israel is one among the few countries which adopted advanced irrigation methods.

Farmers from north Karnataka and dry areas in the central region of the State would find the advanced techniques useful for cultivation, he said.

The Agriculture Department has invited tenders from the travel agencies and the first batch of 80 to 100 farmers is expected to leave for either China or Israel by February end or early March.

Rs 5-crore programme
The total budget for the programme is Rs five crore while expenditure on each farmer will be estimated after the tenders are finalised.

The Yeddyurappa government, after coming to power in 2008, announced the farmers’ foreign tour to study advanced agriculture methods every year. Last year the Agriculture Department took 536 farmers in five groups to China.

They spent six days in the country visiting agri farms, agriculture research institutions and interacting with their China counterparts.

The Government had announced to take 1,000 farmers at an expenditure of Rs 68,000 on each. After the floods in 14 districts of north Karnataka in October 2009, the Government stopped the programme temporarily.
The State government will take a decision on selecting farmers this year while the MLAs were asked to recommend names of progressive farmers for the trip last year.