Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the objective of improving the human resources in agricultural sector, transfer of agricultural technologies and the overall development came out with the mandate of establishing one KVK for every district in the country. It was realized during the course of implementation of the scheme of KVK that the vocational training only would not be useful unless it is followed up with frontline demonstrations in the farmer’s field in order to demonstrate the production potentialities of agricultural technologies.

First the station has started as ZARS and later KVK come into exist in February 1999 under NATP, later converged as full pledged KVK during April 2004. The KVK, Tumkur is located at Bidaregudi kaval, which is 10 km away from Tiptur and 1 km away on the Tiptur-Arasikere highway in Tumkur district.

This Kendra will impart ‘learning through work-experience’. Following are the main mandates of KVK

1. Conducting On Farm Testing to identify the location specificity of agricultural technologies under various farming systems.

2. Organizing Front Line Demonstrations to establish production potential of various crops and enterprises on the farmer’s field.

3. Organizing need based training for farmers to update their knowledge and skill on modern agricultural technologies related to Technology Assessment, Refinement and Demonstration, and training of Extension Personnel to orient them in the frontier areas of technology development.

4. Creating awareness about improved Agricultural Technologies among various clienteles through an appropriate Extension programmes

5. Production of quality Seeds, Planting materials, Livestock breeds, Animal products, Bio-products etc., as per the demand and supply the same to different clienteles.

6. Work as resource and knowledge centre of Agricultural technology to support the initiatives of Public, Private and Voluntary sectors for improving the agricultural economy of the district.

Krishi Vigyan Kendra functions in collaboration with line departments testing the latest technologies with a view to reduce the time lag between technology generation and its adoption. KVK verifies the technologies in the socio-economic conditions of the farmers and study the constraints in production as well as to modify the technologies to suit to local conditions. Keeping in view the mandate, KVK follow the principle of learning by doing.