Bailhongal/Sangolli:  Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced on Friday that from April the supply of milk for schoolchildren will be increased to five days a week under the ‘Ksheera Bhagya’ scheme and rice under ‘Anna Bhagya’ will also be increased.

Addressing farmers at the valedictory function of the 37th State-level Krishi Mela here, he said that the government had already released the subsidy component to dairy farmers.

However, the delay was due to the ongoing process of linking their accounts with Aadhar cards. The Chief Minister also said that the government had focused on making agriculture lucrative and therefore provided subsidy for drip irrigation.

He added that Karnataka was facing drought for the past six straight years.

The failure to implement the concept of lab-to-land, fluctuations in prices of agriculture commodities in markets and unscientific agriculture practices had also contributed to the present plight of growers, he said.

Owing to the devastating effects of climate change, the farmers need to adopt weather-based cropping and integrated agriculture practices.

However, schemes like ‘Anna Bhagya’, ‘Ksheera Bhagya’, ‘Bisi Oota’, besides providing jobs for 150 days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme had been helpful in checking migration from villages considerably.