P Srinivasan I [email protected]
Modern farm equipment ease the tough work of farmers, but small and marginal farmers cannot afford to purchase these costly equipment due to their economic conditions. The state government to benefit such farmers set up custom hiring centres through Kray Vikray Sahakari Samitis (KVSS), Gram Seva Sahakari Samitis (GSSS and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO). In the last four years, 748 custom hiring centres have been set up in the state, which are proving to be a boon for such farmers.
Babu Lal Jat, a farmer from Dhankya village in Jaipur district said that he had taken a thresher on rent from the custom hiring centre to thresh wheat to separate seeds from straws and husks. Thresher is used for many crops such as wheat, maize, beans, soybeans and other crops. He said that private thresher in the market cost Rs 1300 per hour on rent, while at the custom hiring centre it costs Rs 900 per hour on rent. Similarly, another farmer Swaroop Kumar of Kalwar village in Jaipur district said that he often takes farm equipment on rent from customer hiring centre for ploughing, sowing and reaping crops, which are available for rent on a lesser price than the market.
Modern farm equipment have an important role in good farming and horticulture besides improved seeds, fertiliser and irrigation. Mechanisation in farming increases both production and productivity.
The cooperative department is given financial assistance up to Rs 8 lakh to purchase farm equipment through the subsidy given by the agriculture department to set up a custom hiring centre. These centres purchase tractors, threshers, rotavators, reapers, seed cum fertiliser drills etc. The farmers from these centres take farm equipment as per their requirement on rent and use them for farming. With this facility, there is no financial burden on the farmers. Agriculture works too become easy due to the use of improved techniques and the income of farmers too increases due to an increase in productivity. Small and marginal farmers are getting farm equipment at cheaper rates on rent through these centres along with cooperative societies too are becoming strong.
Agriculture commissioner Kanaram said, “748 custom hiring centres have been set up in the last four years with a cost of Rs 43.11 crore under submission on agricultural mechanisation scheme to provide farm equipment at cheaper rates to farmers”.
He said that the chief minister in the budget 2022-23 announced that it is proposed to give a subsidy of Rs 150 crore to set up 1500 custom hiring centres through GSSS and KVSS in the next 2 years under Rajasthan Agriculture Technique Mission. It has been targeted to set up 600 custom hiring centres in this financial year 2022-23 and till now the selection process has been completed to set up 500 hiring centres as per the target.
The agriculture commissioner said that as per the mission the state government gives financial assistance of 80% of the purchase cost of the tractor with farm equipment that is maximum of up to Rs 8 lakh to GSSS and KVSS for setting up custom hiring centres with a cost of Rs 10 lakh. Till now, 370 farmers have been benefitted by providing farm equipment at cheap prices on rent, he added.
Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti Kalwar manager Mohan Lal Saini said that the state government gave financial assistance of Rs 8 lakh in January 2022 to purchase tractor and other agriculture equipment and has benefitted 97 farmers till now by giving them equipment on rent at a cheaper price through custom hiring centre.
