Karnataka Budget 2026: New initiatives to support eco-friendly farm practices, efficient use of water, embrace AI tech
The Hindu
Karnataka's 2026 Budget introduces eco-friendly initiatives like 'Vasudhamruta' to enhance sustainable agriculture and support millet cultivation.
The State Budget featured a few schemes to support eco-friendly agricultural practices, along with measures to strengthen initiatives to back cultivation of millets in Karnataka.
The budet has proposed ‘Vasudhamruta’ programme to promote eco-friendly and sustainable agricultural practices by enhancing organic carbon content of soil, along with its physical, chemical, and biological properties. The programme will be implemented over the next three years in Karnataka.
The ‘Sasya Sanjeevini’ scheme has been announced to identify pests and diseases at the early stage, and to provide timely recommendations to farmers on control measures, such as use of eco-friendly bio-control agents and bio-pesticides, along with other safer control measures. This scheme too will be implemented over the next three years.
With respect to millets, the budget has proposed to strengthen the ‘Millet Hub’, which is being established to promote millets and organic products in Karnataka. The hub, which had been announced in the previous budget, will now be developed into a self-sustaining institution. It will function as a single-window system to provide technical assistance, processing facilities, quality certification, and market linkages under one roof to farmers, rural youth, and agri-entrepreneurs.
‘Chief Minister’s Krishi Vistara’ scheme has been announced to create stable and additional sources of income for farmers by comprehensively strengthening post-harvest activities, such as processing, value addition, value chain development, recycling of agricultural waste, and setting up market linkages over the next three years with an outlay of ₹100 crore.
The Agriculture Department’s ‘Raitha Kare Kendra’ (Farmer Call Centre) is set to be upgraded using AI technology to provide farmers with quick access to reliable information on weather, markets, agricultural technology, and departmental updates under one roof.
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