Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has provisioned a 40 to 60% subsidy for various approved agricultural machinery/equipment/ implements for the farmers and a 75 % subsidy for women self-help groups, informed Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain.
Speaking on the occasion of Farm Machineries Manufacturers Meet for “Krushi Yantrapati Mela-2023” held at Krushi Bhawan on Thursday Swain said that the State government is providing subsidies and credit facilities to the farmers for the supply of improved agricultural machinery and equipment.
Swain stated that subsidy is being provided to the farmers under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme.
He said SAFAL App (Simplified Application for Agricultural Loans) has been launched since 2022-23 to make this process easy.
Through this portal, the farmers can apply for agricultural loans from banks and various lending institutions and purchase the machinery, he added.
Swain informed that in the last four years from 2019-20 to 2022-23, 1,70,296 pieces of agricultural machinery/equipment have been given to the farmers of Odisha with a subsidy amount of Rs 1005.83 crores.
He laid emphasis on the popularization of small equipment, especially women-friendly equipment.
Major machinery such as tractors, power tillers, combine harvesters, reapers, rotavators, rice transplanters, multi-grain axial flow threshers, power weeders and mini rice mills, rubber roll shellers, mini oil mill, Rice Puffing Machines, Rice flattening Machine, pulverisers etc. have been supplied to the farmers, he said.
For the FY-2023-24 the target for supply of Farm Machineries is 70,000 nos. with a subsidy provision for Rs 450 crore. Till 05.09.2023 subsidy amount of Rs 153 crore has been disbursed towards the supply of 24953 nos. of farm machinery to the farmers. Due to continuous efforts in farm mechanization, the farm power input of Odisha has increased from a low of 0.62 kilowatts per hectare in 2000-01 to 2.32 kilowatts per hectare in 2022-23, he added.
The Minister sincerely hoped that with active participation of manufacturers in these melas with sufficient inventory at a reasonable price for sale during this mela will benefit the farmers at large.
Farm Machinery is an important intervention to make agriculture more timebound, reduce drudgery and reduce the cost of cultivation. Agricultural mechanization is one of the major interventions to increase agricultural productivity, food grain production, timely farming and depleting natural resources and farm investment. Financial assistance in the shape of subsidies is being provided to popularize Farm Mechanization in the state.
Last year, district-level mela on farm machinery was organized in all 30 districts to facilitate the sale showcase of new technologically advanced types of machinery to the farmers of the state.
Based on the success and response of the previous year’s mela, the current year the state government has extended the farm machinery mela up to the sub-division level, which is going to be organized between October to December 2023.
Prem Chandra Choudhary, Director of Agriculture and Food Production, Chief Engineer of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Department and other senior officers and a large number of Farm Machine Manufacturers and dealers attended the meeting.
