Anantapur: SRFMTTI offers yeomen service to farmers, agriculture students

Anantapur: Southern Region Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute (SRFMTTI) is offering training to migrant labour in handling farm mechanisation equipment, machinery and implements so that that could be absorbed in operation and maintenance of farm equipment.

It is a 5-week hands on training with a maximum of 25 in a batch. The trainees will be taken care of during their stay and also paid Rs 175 stipend per day. By the end of the training period, each migrant labour would benefit by an amount of Rs 6,025 stipend amount.

Spread in a lush green 450 acres in Garladinne mandal in the district, the Central government farm institute is headed by an able administrator P P Rao hailing from Srikakulam district. Despite the Institute being under-staffed, the administrative and teaching faculty having a long stint with the institution, have owned it by putting up with the stress and inconveniences of faculty crunch. This is virtually a forgotten Institute by its own parents as several appeals even by MPs to the Central government and Union Ministry of Agriculture have turned a blind eye to the requirements of the premier farmers institute. Although the Institute officially works for 5 days in a week, due to staff crunch, the staff is working even on weekends when the situation warranted. The Institute caters to the farm mechanisation training requirements of farmers and agriculture entrepreneurs of Telangana, AP, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

A miniature India can be seen and felt with scores of farmers and technicians from all the states around the country living and working together in harmony in the campus nested on the lap of mother nature amidst a hilly terrain.

SRFMTTI Director P P Rao told The Hans India during an interaction that the Institute is also giving top priority to women farmers training. Understanding their practical difficulties as home makers and their inability to leave their homes for in-campus training, the Institute faculty would reach out to them by going to their own villages and offering training to them locally, a gesture being appreciated by women farmers. The women farmers are also paid a stipend of Rs 175 per day for attending the workshop and training programmes.

Speaking about the legacy of the Institute, Rao stated that the Institute launched in 1980's has long innings of 40 years of service to the farmers and agro-technicians and engineers by catering to 150 agriculture colleges and 25 agriculture universities in the country.

Its nature of training and schedules include user level courses on mechanisation technology and energy management in agriculture, operation and maintenance of power tillers, repairing and overhauling of machines, academic training to degree and diploma engineering students and practical training programme on farm power and machinery for ITI and vocational students.