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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A quiet revolution in farm mechanization -Sayantan Bera

A quiet revolution in farm mechanization -Sayantan Bera

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published Published on Sep 16, 2016   modified Modified on Sep 16, 2016
-Livemint.com

Madhya Pradesh is leading the way in setting up custom hiring centres, which rent out machinery to small farmers and employ rural youth to manage them

Bhopal/ New Delhi:
The frown on the face of Shakti Singh Tomar belies his recent successes. A 44-year-old farmer from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, Tomar proudly says he purchased a Mahindra Bolero SUV in 2014 by paying Rs. 8.1 lakh in cash. “Unlike others, I do not have a loan to repay and purchased two hectares of land recently,” he said.

A large farmer once at the mercy of the vagaries of nature and vulnerable to lower crop prices, Tomar now earns at least Rs. 6 lakh a year by renting out farm machinery. “The centre that I am running has been a blessing,” he added.

Tomar is not an isolated success story. He is among 1,205 farmers spread across Madhya Pradesh who are running custom hiring centres (CHCs) which rent out machinery to small and marginal farmers and employ rural youth who manage these centres all day.

The cost? Rs. 25 lakh to set up one centre, which will get a Rs10 lakh government subsidy. However, as Madhya Pradesh has showed, the social benefits of the scheme have far outweighed the costs.

Machinery available for hire has reduced manual labour and lowered the cost of cultivation, which has gone up due to a labour shortage. Farmers renting equipment have reported yields rising by around 20%.

Stories like that of Tomar also show the structural transformation under way in Indian agriculture: farmers harnessing the opportunities of the market economy, using new technology and becoming entrepreneurs. For instance, Tomar is planning a trip to Haryana to purchase a seed grading machine that costs more than Rs6 lakh. With a group of farmers, he wants to start production of certified seeds that can be sold at a premium.

Mechanization has become a necessity due to higher costs and paucity of farm labour, said Rajesh Rajora, principal secretary (agriculture) with the state government. “Every year, nearly 4.5 lakh farm hands move out of rural areas (in Madhya Pradesh) in search of skilled or unskilled work. As purchasing equipment is costly and unviable for small farmers, custom hiring is the way out,” he said.

Fragmented farm holdings mean individual ownership of machinery is unviable for small farmers. For instance, 85% of farm holdings in India belong to small and marginal farmers cultivating less than two hectares. A tractor needs at least 1,000 hours of operation every year to be economically viable, while two hectares means at most 100 hours. In states like Punjab—India’s most mechanized state with double the number of tractors it needs—individual ownership of machinery has not only led to higher cost of production and lower net income to farmers, but also rising debt among farm households.

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Livemint.com, 15 September, 2016, http://www.livemint.com/Politics/GUjViqjuiAACb6e4lS5g7M/A-quiet-revolution-in-farm-mechanization.html


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