Karnataka proposes to subsidize farmers' fuel costs through a new initiative dubbed "Raitha Shakti," which has a budget of Rs 500 crore and aims to boost farm mechanization and productivity. "To encourage the use of farm machinery and to reduce fuel expenditure burden, for the first time in the State, a diesel subsidy of Rs 250 per acre, subject to a maximum of 5 acres, will be given through DBT under a new scheme "Raitha Shakti," for which Rs.500 crore will be provided," Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said in his presentation of the 2022-23 Budget.

In order to make farm machinery available to small and marginal farmers, the state plans to expand the Krishi Yantradhare Centres to all hoblies.

There have been proposed a number of measures to boost farm produce value addition and improve post-harvest infrastructure. Common centers for Farmer Producer Organizations are to be created by the Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation (KAPPEC) at a cost of Rs 50 crore to take up post-harvest management, marketing, and export agricultural produce.

The state has created a Secondary Agriculture Directorate, which will allow for value addition to primary agricultural products and expanded marketing opportunities through FPOs.

Model of Public-Private Partnership

A cold contemporary storage facility would be created on a PPP model at Toravi village in Vijayapura district, which has the largest area under grape production in the state, at a cost of Rs 35 crore. According to Bommai, the Karnataka Grape and Wine Board would develop a cold storage facility to scientifically manage grape storage, conservation, and transportation via cold storage transportation vehicles.

The state would also receive Rs 35 crore funding from the National Mission on Edible Oil to expand oil palm agriculture by 25,000 hectares over the next five years. According to Bommai, research on nitrogen fixation and bio-analytical techniques in natural farming will be carried out in 1,000-acre plots at agricultural and horticultural universities and will be spread to farmers' lands to encourage farmers to adopt natural farming.

Karnataka is the third-largest producer of organic farm food in the country, with 2 lakh hectares of farmland converted to organic farming. The Pradhana Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana –Watershed Development component-2.0 will be executed on 2.75 lakh hectares of rain-fed land across 57 taluks of the State with the support of the Central Government.

Karnataka also wants to trademark "Bhima Pulse," a tur dal grown in the districts of Kalburgi and Yadagiri that has a specific geographical characteristic.

A 'Ksheera Samruddhi Sahakara Bank' is also being planned to assist milk farmers in obtaining loans without difficulty. The state government would put up Rs 100 crore in share capital, while the Milk Producers Co-operative Society, Karnataka Milk Federation, and District Milk Unions will each put up Rs 260 crore.

Karnataka, the state that produces the most silk, has also offered a Rs 10,000 per tonne incentive for silk producers who make Bivoltine cocoon and sell it in the Government Silk Cocoon Market. A high-tech government cocoon market would be created in Kalaburgi and Haveri districts with the support of Nabard at a cost of 30 crores to provide modern marketing facilities to the state's silk farmers.