20,275 farmers selected for farm mechanisation

Kadapa: With majority of agricultural labourers opting for works under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), farmers are forced to adopt mechanisation for their cultivation activities due to labour shortage. According to the sources, around 5 lakh farmers in the district have taken up cultivation of paddy, commercial and horticulture crops in one lakh hectares in the current monsoon season.

With thousands of farm labourers migrating to other states as construction workers, coupled with implementation of NREGS, labour costs have become very high for farmers. To deal with the situation, farmers are bringing labourers from far-off places in the peak cropping season.

However, this has also failed to solve the problem owing to high labour costs and meagre labour availability. With a view to encourage farmers towards mechanisation, the state government has proposed to sanction instruments like rotators, cultivators, mould board ploughs, seed-cum-fertiliser drills, mini-tractors, inter-cultivators and plant protectors.

The Agriculture department prepared proposals for Rs 65 crore under the modern farm mechanisation. These instruments would be provided under the Cultivation Budget and Rashtriya Vikas Yojana at 70 per cent subsidy. Apart from this, 50 per cent would be provided by the central government while the state government will bear 20 per cent. Sources disclosed that 20,275 farmers were selected under these schemes.

By M Srinivasa Rao