Farmers get farm tools on subsidy

Gagandeep Singh

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 24

To equip the farmers with the latest farm equipment, the Agriculture Department in Jalandhar has distributed as many as 360 machines to the farmers under the Farming Development Project and Crop Diversification scheme. To bring about transparency in the distribution process, the farmers were chosen through a lottery.
Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Suttantar Kumar Airi said the department had called for application to distribute the machines to the farmers in the district. Against the call, the department had received 843 applications.
To provide access to these machines through farmer groups and cooperative societies, the awareness campaigns are also being launched so that the farmers can get the optimum yield with less input, Airi said.
“As many as 506 applications were received for the rotavator machine, which has a market rate of Rs 84000 to 90,000 as per the size. We provide rotavator for Rs 33,000 to Rs 35,000 on subsidy. So far, 40 rotavators have been distributed today on subsidy,” he added. An exhibition of farm tools was organised on the occasion.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Kumar Amit said observing the lack of farm labourers for the last few years, the government is provide the latest technology to the farmers.
He said the cooperative societies could play a vital role in getting the farmers access to expensive farming tools. These could help them overcome the problem created due to labour shortage.