BANGALORE: The Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka, organised a one-day workshop on ‘Agriculture and Allied R&D Institutions and Industry Linkage’ on Friday as an effort to provide a platform for agricultural universities and research and development (R&D) institutes to work together. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Secretary (Agriculture), Government of Karnataka, Dr Sandeep Dave said that the State Government will act as a facilitator in bringing universities and R&D institutes together. “This kind of a collaboration is a win-win situation. The government will provide financial support to any such collaborative efforts,” he added. “Almost 80 per cent research is done in state-owned laboratories. Yet, even if we were to use the state-owned labs, they are only available in universities,” he said, adding that collaboration could reduce research costs.The initiative is a part of the State Government’s Bounteous Karnataka Project to promote sustainable agribusiness. “An initiative like this helps to procure opinions of industry experts, and also try to determine how we can make agricultural income sustainable,” said Director of Agriculture Dr K V Sarvesh. The workshop was attended by agriculturalists, researchers, farmers and students. The first session had presentation of technologies by R&D institutions and the second session focused on the requirement of industries. “We are addressing food security, but agricultural income security is ignored. The answer lies in R&D,” said Chairman of Krishi Mission Dr S A Patil.
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