Dharwad: The State government will fund the establishment of two new centres at the University of Horticultural Sciences at Bagalkot (UHSB) and the International Centre for Agriculture at the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Dharwad.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has announced that the state government will fund the setting up of these centres. The declaration comes in the wake of a meeting the CM had with the delegates of Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University (TAMU), USA, at Bangalore earlier this week.

TAMU delegates Mark Hussey, interim president, and Bhimu Patil, director, Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Centre, met Siddaramaiah, along with D P Biradar, vice-chancellor of UAS, Dharwad.

Patil had initiated collaboration between TAMU and UAS-Dharwad (UAS-D) 12 years ago with a memorandum of understanding, under the guidance of Dr. Norman Borlaug, Nobel laureate.

Based on the over a decade-long exchange activities among students and faculty, and reciprocal visits of administrators between the two institutes, the CM declared that Karnataka will immediately provide funding to start two new centres.

The Foods for Health initiative of Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University’s Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Centre and Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture will play key roles as strategic partners for these new centres and will provide training opportunities for scientists and students from University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad and University of horticultural Sciences at Bagalkot.

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