Karnataka govt, Isha Outreach join hands to boost tree-based agriculture in Cauvery basin

PTI, Aug 24, 2022, 10:10 AM IST

The Karnataka government and ‘Isha Outreach’ have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together and achieve synergy between ‘Cauvery Calling’ and various government-based agroforestry promotion schemes in the districts which form part of the Cauvery basin. The districts are Kodagu, Mysuru, Mandya, Bengaluru rural, Chamarajnagar, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Ramanagara and Tumkuru.

The MoU was signed by Additional Chief Secretary & Development Commissioner, Government of Karnataka, I S N Prasad, and Project Director of Isha Outreach, Ambrish Kumar.

The support and infrastructure of the state government have been invaluable in taking the ‘Cauvery Calling’ ahead and the MoU signing is a further testament to the same, Isha Outreach said in a statement. ”It comes as a huge boost to the combined vision of the Cauvery Calling and Karnataka government to promote tree-based agriculture, which will not only increase the green cover but also significantly augments farmers’ incomes in the aforementioned Cauvery basin districts”, it said.

The Karnataka government runs various schemes for the promotion of tree planting on farmers’ fields with the objective of promoting sustainable agriculture and augmenting farmers’ income. Accordingly, Isha Outreach will work closely with the Forest department, Agriculture department, Horticulture department, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department of Karnataka to realise the vision of ‘Cauvery Calling’. Isha Outreach, a social initiative of Isha envisioned by Sadhguru, runs the ‘Cauvery Calling’ movement, to revitalise river Cauvery, rejuvenate the soil, and improve farmers’ income, the statement said.

Cauvery Calling aims to enable 5.2 million farmers to plant 2.42 billion trees in the Cauvery River Basin in a span of 12 years. Twenty one million saplings have been planted since the inception of the Cauvery Calling movement, it was stated.