Does sustainable development goals achievement of Karnataka depend on its farm growth?

Karnataka state, blessed with varied agro climatic features suited for raising almost all cereals, pulses, oilseeds and commercial crops, is also a major IT and biotechnology destination in the country. The state had comparatively lower growth in the agriculture sector during 2005–06 to 2014–15. There was higher growth in the service sector, contributing half of the state income. It appears that the benefits of growth have not percolated down to the major part of the society as indicated by comparatively lower reduction in rural poverty ratio. There was reduction in urban poverty ratio from 25.9 in 2004–05 to 15.3 during 2011–12, a very low unemployment rate in urban areas and high per day calorie intake in urban areas. The performance of Karnataka in respect of human development indicators was near national average since 1999. Rural population showed low score and low improvement as compared to urban population resulting in low overall ranking of the state. However, the state's performance in major health and gender indicators were better than those of most of the major states indicating better human development policies. The fact that the states’ performance of agriculture and reduction in the poverty ratio was not well as compared with major states calls for improvement of agriculture. Being largely dryland state, investments in irrigation and bringing more area under double cropping would help in future agricultural growth. The paper, therefore, concludes that the sustainable development goals of Karnataka largely depend on its farm growth.