The move to provide farm equipment for preparing soil for cultivation as a rent-free service to small and marginal farmers by the Department of Agriculture in association with the Jfarm, an agriculture research centre of Tractors and Farm Equipment (TAFE), Chennai, has received an overwhelming response.
The service provider has reportedly sought the government’s help in adding more tractors and other equipment of private people to its service platform to fulfil the demand for free service from small farmers.
According to official sources, the agriculture research centre has around 4,500 tractors and 10,000 ploughing implements. Since the demand was more, the company has sought the help of the government to convince private owners to join hands with it to help farmers. Block level agriculture officers have been asked to convince the private owners to join the scheme as their participation would not only help farmers but also help them earn some money.
The manner in which the remuneration to be offered - either as hire charges or free servicing or replacing worn out parts of tractor and implements - would be decided by promoters of the scheme, they added.
A beneficiary of this offer, G.Srinivasan of Ganapathy Agraharam near Iyyampettai in Thanjavur district, termed the scheme as timely assistance from the State government as farmers found it difficult to take up summer cultivation this season in view of the virus scare. Though the Union and State governments have exempted farm operations from the purview of the lockdown, farm workers preferred to stay away from fields as they did not want to risk their health.
A progressive farmer, S.Sundaram of Maharajapuram near Thirukattupalli in Thanjavur district, said it was right time to promote mechanization of farm operations. Further, the government should extend all necessary financial assistance to large farmers for procurement of farm implements so that they could take up cultivation at the right time with less farmhands.