Bengaluru,  Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said the state is in the forefront of digitalisation in agriculture sector and so far, 78 lakh farmers have been brought under this ambit by linking farmers, survey number and Aadhaar details.

Bommai was participating in a video conference with Union Home and Co-Operation Minister Amit Shah regarding the natural farming and digital footprint in farming.

Pointing out that the state had already initiated digitalisation with Bhumi software and included 62 lakh landowners and 16 lakh landless farmers in the software.

"Fruits software is now being emulated by other states. This software is being improved regularly. The date has taken up the 'Swamithva' scheme of the Central government as a campaign," he added.

Bommai said with the help of digital technology, farmers themselves are surveying their land and so far, 212 crore plots have been digitised.

Farmers are doing the crop survey on their own and have done the survey of 16,584 crops of the total 212 crore agricultural plots.

"To avoid any complications, steps are taken for all farmers to do the survey themselves. So far, they have done it very honestly. Natural farming is a longtime project and the research and certification are very important."

The state with five agriculture and horticulture universities has taken up natural farming in around 1,000 acres of land under the continuous monitoring of varsities.

"As many as 2.4 lakh hectare of land is being converted into natural farming from organic farming and an additional one lakh hectare will be converted into natural farming by March 2023," Bommai added.