Mangaluru, (The Hindu): A mobile application, Farmsurge, to connect farmers, scientists, institutions, buyers and sellers, developed by Arunya Foundation, Mangaluru, was released during the inauguration of the two-day Krishi Sangama, a farm fair, which began at Ganjimath, near here, on Saturday.

Speaking after launching it, H. Kempe Gowda, Joint Director, Agriculture, Dakshina Kannada, said the app can provide information on government facilities and schemes available to farmers from time to time.

Mr. Gowda said that the app has options to create different groups, like farmers cultivating arecanut, coconut, paddy, jowar, ragi etc., and provides a platform for interaction. It has ‘buy request’ and ‘sell request’ categories for farmers and a category of notification.

The team of youth, who developed the app, had to compete with others who have developed similar apps. The government selected this app after its own assessment. B.K. Deva Rao of Mittabagilu, near Ujire in Dakshina Kannada, who has preserved about 150 varieties of paddy, and who inaugurated the Krishi Sangama asked youth not to drift away from paddy cultivation.

He asked them to pursue education and other professions by reserving some time for paddy cultivation.

The youth can cultivate paddy in fields which have been left barren by its owners for various reasons. Mr. Rao said his efforts in conserving paddy variants has won him about 15 awards, including the SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) Samman award. The 73-year-old Mr. Rao, explained how use of chemical fertilisers brought down 45 varieties of paddy being cultivated by him since 1960s to about eight varieties in the late 1980s. He quit application of chemical fertilisers in 1988 and went the organic way, thus saving up to 150 varieties. Since the shelf life of paddy seeds is only up to eight months, he has to grow them every year in small plots to preserve the seeds.

The foundation has organised the Krishi Sangama at Oddur farm.