Tractor Subsidy In Tripura

Tractors Subsidy in Tripura

Scheme for promotion of Farm Mechanization under RKVY by providing subsidy @ 50 % or maximum limit @ Rs. 45000/ per nos, for Power Tiller

Introduction:

Power is needed on the farm for operating different tools, implements and during various farm operations. While mobile power is used for doing different field jobs, the stationary power is used for lifting water and operating irrigation equipment; operating threshers, shellers / decorticators, cleaners, graders and for other post harvest operations. The mobile farm power comes from human, draught animals, power tillers, tractors and self propelled machines; whereas the stationary power is obtained from oil engines (diesel, petrol, and kerosene) and electric motors.

Availability of adequate farm power is very crucial for timely farm operations for increasing production and productivity and handling the crop produce to reduce losses. With the increase in intensity of cropping the turnaround time is drastically reduced and it is not possible to harvest and thresh the standing crop, on one hand, and prepare seed bed and do timely sowing operations of subsequent crop, on the other hand, in the limited time available, unless adequate farm power is available.

Similarly for precision farming, increasing area under irrigation, conservation tillage, straw management and diversification in agriculture, more power is required for water lifting and precision placement/application of agricultural inputs—seed, fertilizer, irrigation water, plant protection chemicals etc and meeting the requirements of diversified agriculture.

There has been positive correlation between farm power availability and increased productivity. Those states where availability of farm power is more, in general, could realize the higher productivity as compared to others. The time series population of agricultural workers during the period 1951 to 2001 reflects that while the population of agricultural workers as percentage of rural population has gone down from about 69.4% in 1951 to about 58.4% in 2001 but in absolute terms, due to increase in overall population, the number of agricultural workers available in rural areas has increased from about 97.2 million numbers in 1951 to about 235.1 million numbers in 2001.

These agricultural workers are engaged in different farm operations and depend on agriculture for their livelihood, even when they are not fully employed throughout the year. Due to too much involvement of labour in different farm operations, the cost of production of most of the crops in our country is quite high as compared to developed countries.

Rationale of the Proposal:

Considering the average command area of a pair of draught animals, a power tiller of 7.46 kW and a tractor of about 26.1 kW as 2 ha, 6 ha and 15 ha respectively, about 500 pairs of bullocks, or 167 power tillers or about 67 tractors or a combination of the three sources would be required per 1000 ha of cultivated area. Except for Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar other states do not have adequate farm power to do timely tillage and seedbed preparations. Similarly it is seen that during last 7 years the average sale of tractors was about 74.84% mainly in the northern States of Uttar Pradesh (Including Uttaranchal), Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh), Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and Bihar (including Jharkhand) and only about 19.63% in southern States of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. This also shows that in future also the southern States (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala), Orissa, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and States of NEH region will depend mainly on animate source of power and to a little extent on power tillers. It has been experienced that those states, which have higher horsepower availability on the farm, in general, have higher productivity.

The per unit cost of using energy from different sources of farm power differ greatly. Hence they should be used very judiciously. In India, use of human and draught animals is very predominant in agriculture in most parts of the country and hence the cost of production is quite high as compared to advanced countries where mechanical power is predominantly used. As far as possible, human energy should be used for very precise work or for operating machines where brainpower is to be used for decision-making and not for physical work.

Future requirements of farm power to sustain agricultural production:For growing population we need more production of food grains. ICAR in its Vision 2020 document has projected the demand of food grains as about 293.6 million tons by 2020. Since the cultivated area cannot be increased, the increased production will be possible only by increased productivity and increased intensity of cropping. This will call for precision farming and timely farm operations which will require high capacity and precision equipment for which farm power availability will have to be increased substantially. In order to make agricultural production competitive and cost effective the use of mechanical and electrical sources of power will increase in future and the use of draught animals and human power will slowly be going down. The productivity of dry land agriculture, which constitutes about 66% of the total cultivated area, is quite low. The productivity of this region has to be increased substantially. In dry land agriculture, timeliness in farm operations, especially the seedbed preparation and sowing/planting for establishing good crop stand in deficient/receding soil moisture condition is of crucial importance. Unless adequate mobile farm power is not available on the farm, the sowing operation gets delayed resulting poor crop stand and yields. In these areas farmers should use Power Tillers/Mini Tractors /Tractors and Seed drills/planters for timely sowing operations. Such devices will have to be made available to even marginal and small farmers on custom basis to do their seedbed preparation and sowing operations in time.

It is visualized that by 2020 the requirement of farm power will be on the following pattern to attain the production target of required food grain, vegetables etc.

Farm power availability: 2.00 kW/ha
Share of Animate power will be 5%: 0.10 kW/ha
Share of Mechanical power: 1.40 kW/ha will be 70% (Mobile 50% and Stationary 25%)
Share of electrical power will be 25%: 0.50 kW/ha.

Considering the future requirement of Farm Power and more than 94 % of small and marginal farmers of Tripura, intervention through RKVY to provide assistance to the farmers of the state become dire necessities to increase production as well as cropping intensity in addition to overall socio economic condition of the every farm household. It is proposed to provide subsidy for Power Tiller and Mini Tractor @ 50% which will able to initiate great momentum in the scenario of Agricultural Development of the State.