Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday pitched for Bengaluru, the country’s IT capital, to also emerge as the country’s agri tech capital.
Inaugurating the Global Agritech Summit-2026, organised by the Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FKCCI) in association with the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru, the Chief Minister said there was a need to use all technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, for the development of agricultural sector with a focus on the integrated development of the State.
The Chief Minister expressed concern that the present day youth were going away from agriculture. They would show interest towards agriculture only if the sector becomes profitable, he observed.
Mr. Siddramaiah called upon industrialists to invest in agriculture and allied sectors, while observing that agriculture sector can become profitable only if there are more investments in the sector.
Pointing out that Karnataka stands second in the country in terms of large extent of dry and drought-prone land, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the government headed by him in his first stint as Chief Minister had introduced Krishi Bhagya scheme to reach out to dry-land farmers. But the BJP that came to power subsequently had discontinued the scheme. However, his present government had reintroduced the scheme mainly to help small land holding farmers in dry-land regions, he noted.
