Vijayawada: Government to launch YSR farm mechanisation service

Vijayawada: The State government comes out with an innovative plan to give a boost to agriculture by introducing the farm mechanisation service scheme without additional investment and burden to small and marginal farmers, according to a communiqué from the Information and Public Relations Department.

Under the scheme, the farmers will be organised into groups with at least five members. The government subsidises agricultural machinery such as power tillers, rotovators, cultivators, sprayers and others. Community Hiring Centers (CHCs) were formed at Rythu Bharosa Kendras.

The government provides each farmer group with 40 per cent subsidy, 50 per cent bank loan and 10 per cent farmer group share to own machinery. While the farmers in the groups use these equipment for their own cultivation, it also allows them to rent them out to other farmers on non-working days and thus to generate some income. Meanwhile, the government is also promoting the Baylor Crop Residue Management Policy to provide additional income to farmers by collecting and selling paddy straw.

Under the YSR Farm Mechanisation Service, a total of 11,960 service centers are being set up across the State at a cost of Rs. 2,133.75 crore. Of these, RBKs will be affiliated with a total of 10,750 community hiring centres (CHCs) as well as 175 high-tech hubs equipped with state-of-the-art agricultural machinery at the constituency level.

In addition to these, a total of 1,035 cluster CHCs with combined harvesters are being set up in the dual Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts exclusively at the rate of 5 per zone. The target for the first phase is to set up 3,250 CHCs by September 30, while 2,520 CHCs have been set up so far at a cost of Rs 98.8 crore.

Training of youth in the use of machinery: Community Hiring Centers (CHCs) set up at a cost of Rs 15 lakh, the constituency level hubs will have Rs 1.50 crore and agricultural machinery is being set up at a cost of Rs 25 lakh.

For CHCs Rs 1,612.50 crore and for hubs Rs. 262.5 crore and for Harvester Cluster CHCs at Rs 258.75 crore the government is making equipment worth Rs 2,133.75 crore available to farmers. Agriculture officials are also conducting training programmes for the youth at the zonal level on how to use the machinery provided by the government and the way to cope up if there are any problems during operation.

Although the farm mechanisation scheme has been implemented in the past, it has only benefited a few people. The scheme did not fulfill its core purpose as it could not reach any of the small and marginal farmers. Observing the situation, the State government brought the service scheme.