ABSTRACT
Karnataka is an agriculturally important state contributing about 5% of the food production in India. It is mainly a drought-prone state, and farmers’ income from cultivation is very low, highly unstable, and does not fully support the livelihood of farmers, particularly small and marginal ones. Despite several reforms and policies of successive governments, the overall agricultural performance of the state is of deep concern. Therefore, to increase and stabilise the income of farmers, productivity growth, the diversification of farm/nonfarm income, pursuing secondary agriculture, better processing, marketing and trade practices, logistics, and greater attention to non-price sources of growth is urgently needed. The authors of the book, after critical analysis of the current status, challenges, efforts made and impacts realised in the past, and present and estimated trends in the future, have provided useful new insights, highlighted increasing pressures including that of the COVID pandemic to speed and scale up agricultural performance in the state by suggesting the Karnataka Agricultural Transformation Model with a minimum action plan under four key strategies, namely a caring foundation of growth, enhancing productivity growth in primary agriculture, setting new directions and determinants for SAD, and accelerating profitable and competitive growth in primary agriculture.
