Energy Park and firm Machinery

         

         AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINERY

         Farm Mechanisation has been one of the vital programmes of the Government of India with theaim of optimal utilisation of the available sources of farm power. With a view to meeting the food requirement of the ever-increasing population in the country, Government have laid stress, interalia on the promotion and popularisation of improved agricultural implements, both poweroperated and animal drawn implements. Financial assistance has been extended to the farmers, various registered agricultural cooperative societies, etc. for owning tractors and their matching implements. A sizeable infrastructure has been developed for imparting training to the farmers and other personnel for the proper selection, operation, maintenance, and management of farm machinery. Energy conservation techniques in the use of agricultural machinery have been given emphasis in the training programmes being conducted at the Department’s Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes. For improving the level of mechanisation in the North-Eastern States, a new scheme has been included in the programmes for the Ninth Five Year Plan of the Department. Besides, with a view to bringing about an effective and balanced development of farm mechanisation in the various agro-climatic zones of the country, another new scheme has been proposed for its implementation during the Ninth Five Year Plan for conducting an in-depth study to identify the specialised agricultural equipment suitable for catering to the felt-needs of the different zones and formulating long-term mechanisation strategies of each agro-climatic zone.

       Progress of Selective Mechanisation

        11.2 The ever-increasing use of improved agricultural machines and implements has contributed to a noteworthy increase in the production of the agricultural produce by way of tapping the optimal agricultural potential of the country. Keeping in view the indispensability of animal power in the prevailing agro-climatic and socio-economic condition of the country, the Government have also laid emphasis on the promotion and popularisation of improved hand tools, animal drawn implements and some of the power operated machines among the farmers. During the year under report, it was targeted to provide subsidy ranging from 25 percent to 50 percent to the farmers for the purchase of about 2,28,000 manually operated/bullock drawn implements and power operated machines, 94700 plant protection equipment, 17,400 sprinkler sets, and 3970 power tillers under the various croporiented schemes of the Department. As a result of the Government policy and programmes, fuelefficient tractors and other improved and quality farm machines and equipment are now available to the farmers. The programmes have also resulted in the increased adoption of agricultural machines by the farmers. The farm power, now available in the country is estimated at 1.1 Hp/ha. against about 0.35 Hp/ha. in the early seventies.