A two-day Krishi Mela organised by the Zonal Agricultural and Horticultural Station (ZAHRS) began here on Saturday.
Day one of the programme attracted a large number of farmers. There were demonstrations of different kinds of farming at the venue.
One of the major attractions was a bull, an Ongole breed, with which people were seen taking photographs and selfies. Mohammed Irshad Abideen had brought it from his farm in Uppinakote village. His family has been rearing cattle since 1987.
“We have different breeds of cattle, including cows and bulls such as Gir, Malnad Gidda, Sahiwal, Punganur, besides the Ongole breed at our farms at Uppinakote and also Hosanagar in Shivamogga district. We have 20 head of cattle in our farm at Uppinakote and 50 at Hosanagar,” he said.
The paddy research, demonstration and seed production blocks were the other highlights at the mela. Since the coastal region has a preference for red rice, many of those varieties released by the ZAHRS dominated the paddy-grown areas.
There were 150 stalls for demonstration and sale of agricultural equipment and related material. A stall had spices, coffee and tea cultivated in Chikkamagaluru district. Priyanka Mary Francis, Deputy Commissioner, visited the mela and said that farmers should take to integrated farming as it will reduce their dependence on one or two crops. “They should take to poultry farming and have fish ponds. Integrated farming helps to maximise profits in small land holdings,” she said.
Gunapal Kadamba, a progressive farmer from Karkala, said Krishi Melas give new ideas to farmers to try out on their fields. Ramakrishna Sharma, a farmer from Bantakal, said farmers are exposed to the latest technology at these events, and they adopt some of them in their farms.