Rs 13.69 cr farm equipment given to 160 farmers’ groups in Tirupati
District Collector K Venkataramana Reddy and Rural MPP Chevireddy Mohith Reddy flagging off the tractors at the Collectorate in Tirupati on Friday
Tirupati : As part of second phase of mega mela under the YSR Yantra Seva scheme, Rs 13.69 crore agriculture equipment has been provided to 160 farmers’ groups in the district. Out of this, the state government was bearing 40 percent subsidy of Rs 4.58 crore while 50 percent loan amount will be provided by the banks. Only the remaining 10 percent has to be borne by the farmers’ groups.
District Collector K Venkataramana Reddy flagged off the new tractors at Tirupati Collectorate and distributed them to the farmers’ groups. He also released the mega cheque of Rs 4.58 crore towards subsidy amount provided by the state government to the district farmers groups. Speaking on the occasion, he said the intention was to see that investment should not be a burden on farmers. By not only providing the 40 percent subsidy, the government will also facilitate the banks to arrange the remaining 50 percent amount as loans to the groups.
As part of it, under phase-II, 79 tractors were provided to the farmers’ groups while in the first phase 140 tractors are distributed. The Collector felt that if these were given individually to farmers, they may charge higher rents from other needy farmers. To avoid this, any farmer can hire them from Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) on rental basis. With this, agriculture equipment has been made available at 429 RBKs out of 445 in the district. District agriculture officer Prasada Rao, Tirupati rural MPP Chevireddy Mohith Reddy, farmers and officials took part. Meanwhile, Madhava Varma, a farmer beneficiary from Bommarajapuram of Vadamalapet mandal said that he is a member of Rythu Mitra group which so far obtained cultivators, rotavators and sprayers by availing subsidies. Now they could get a tractor also which is beneficial to the farmers which can reduce the investment burden. Another farmer Bhaskar Reddy from Thottambedu mandal said that by having own equipment under groups, the cost of cultivation has been reduced by more than 60 percent.