Plans Rs 146 cr farm mechanisation scheme in FY15

To conduct soil health for every farmer and issue soil health cards

The department of agriculture will introduce a new farm mechanisation scheme involving an initial outlay of Rs 146 crore from the present year. Under this scheme, the government intends to supply farm equipment like tractors, rotovators, ploughing machines and harvesters among others to farmers.

“There is a need for farmers to engage tractors to till their land, but at the same time every farmer cannot purchase a tractor because it will not be economical. So, we have decided to set up custom hire centres (CHCs) at every Hobli level which will in turn will supply these machines to farmers at a nominal rent. This will be a public-private partnership model and implemented over a period of two years,” said Krishna Byregowda, minister for agriculture.

Speaking on the demand for grants for agriculture for the present year in the Legislative Assembly, he said, to begin with, the government will invest 75 per cent of the money required, while the private party selected through a tender will put in the rest in the first year.

In the second year, the investment will be shared in the ratio of 50:50 between the government and the private investor. From the third year onwards till the sixth year, the private investor will continue to invest and, operate and manage the CHCs for six years, he said.

The government will spend Rs 70 crore this year on this scheme. Recently, the department of agriculture had floated tenders and the Dharmasthala Trust has shown interest in participating in this scheme. The government is talking to them, he said.

“Our aim is to increase the productivity of our farmers. To achieve this, the farmers require all modern implements like tractor, rotovator and harvesting machine and others. They can borrow on rent from the CHCs and till their land,” he said.

Byregowda said, the government has decided to invest in this scheme so that it could bring down the rentals on these equipment. This will be a self-sustaining model going forward and will be extended to all hoblis in the state.

Soil health study

He said, just providing modern equipment is not sufficient to increase productivity. There is a need to check the soil health and suggest measures to improve. In order to do this, the government plans to conduct soil health test across the state in a phased manner.

“There are 7.8 million farmers in the state and presently only 130,000 soil tests are conducted through the existing soil-testing centres. In order to reach out to all farmers, the government has decided to set up soil testing centres with the help of private players under a PPP model. The government of India also provides assistance under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture for conducting the soil tests which will be utilised,” Byregowda said.

The state is eligible for an assistance of Rs 15 crore from the government of India for the present year, he said.

Under this scheme, the government will conduct soil health tests on a mission mode and go to the farmers’ fields and conduct the tests. The government will spend Rs 80 crore for this programme during the present year, he said adding that the farmers will be given Soil Health Cards and the data will be maintained in a digital format for future reference.