In modern agriculture, it is very important to have latest agricultural machineries and equipments. If farmers have these modern agricultural machineries then they can easily increase crop yield that too without any labour. As we know that currently, India is under lockdown due to which farmers are facing many problems including lack of farm labourers for harvesting. In this situation, if they had agricultural machineries then their work would not have been affected.
But some farmers are unable to buy these expensive agricultural equipments due to poor economic conditions. Considering this, the Central Government has made forty two thousand custom hiring centres in the country with the objective of providing modern agricultural equipment on rent to small and marginal farmers in India.
Significantly, the Government of India has now taken a big step to solve the problem of farmers. In fact, in some backward states, the government has decided to give a subsidy of up to 100 percent for taking farm equipments. That is, farmers will not have to invest a single rupee from his pocket to open a custom hiring center.
Need and Importance of Mechanization in Agriculture
To promote mechanization in agriculture, the Union Agriculture Ministry has started a scheme called Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM). Agricultural mechanization is an important factor for sustainable development of the farming sector that helps in increasing production. Under this, the machines used for plowing, sowing, plantation, harvesting and waste management will now be easily procured by the farmers. Also, modern agricultural machinery like land leveler, zero tillage, seed drill, happy seeder, mulcher etc. will be provided so that farming becomes easy, production increases and income doubles.
Government offers 100% subsidy for agricultural implements
A special facility has been provided by the Centre for the farmers of the North Eastern Region, in which it has been decided to provide 100 percent financial assistance for setting up a custom hiring center. However, the scheme which has 100 percent subsidy will get a maximum of Rs 1.25 lakh. So, if the farmers groups of the North-East region spend up to Rs 10 lakh to build a machine bank, then they will get 95 percent subsidy. It is important to note that in other areas, 40 percent assistance will be provided to the general category farmers. While SC, ST, women and small-marginal farmers will get subsidy at the rate of 50 percent.
How to apply for CHC-Agricultural Machinery
If a farmer wants to apply for subsidy on agricultural implements, he can go to CSC (Common Service Center) and apply at https://register.csc.gov.in/.
Here, the farmer can tell the machine of choice to the CSC operator. After this, the CSC center operator will give the application number to the farmer. Along with this, farmers can also apply from cyber cafes etc. For this, the farmer will have to apply by visiting the portal https://agrimachinery.nic.in/.
