Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 670 |
| Work Detail | Indicating to the changing trend which augurs well for agriculture and agricultural tools industry, experts say advanced agricultural tools and equipment reaching to farmers bring the next big change in agriculture as well as agricultural tools industry. “Technology and innovation will be the big push which would reach farmers at grassroots level with the coming up of ‘custom hiring centres’ providing high technology equipment to farmers on rent. The Centre is supporting setting up of these centres, which will have advanced agricultural equipment and tools,” says Baldev Singh Amar, chairman of the All-India Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers. He was speaking at the CII Agro Tech 2016 Roadshow organised in the city. The event was organised for creating awareness about CII’s biannual exhibition by the same name, which is going to be held at Chandigarh in November. “Inability to purchase advanced equipment has been impeding the growth of agricultural sector. However, this rent-out model will help technology to reach to farmers, without having to invest in it,” he said. Amar said even cooperative societies were being set up who are buying these equipment for common use of farmers, and renting these out for use. “In fact, after setting up of such cooperative societies in a village, some farmers have even sold their tractors and equipment,” he said. “They don’t need to invest their money in equipment with custom hiring of equipment being available to them,” he said. “It has just started happening, and it is going to turn out to be a big thing for agriculture,” he said. Experts said several new technologies, including laser land leveller, which saves 30 per cent of water, sugarcane harvester, cotton pickers, paddy transplanters were being adopted, which not only save time and labour, but also resources like water, and were more cost effective. Technology and innovation was the need of the hour, as more than 30 per cent of the population was still engaged in and dependent on agriculture in the country, experts said. “Agriculture is growing at just a rate of 2 to 3 per cent. We cannot expect double digit growth of the GDP, if 30 percent population is growing at just 2-3 per cent,” Amit Thapar, chairman, Ludhiana Zonal Council of the CII, said. “Despite positive conditions like the most fertile land, most enterprising farmers and second highest rainfall in the world, the agriculture growth has been slow. That is why role of technology and innovation in agriculture is critical,” he said. The use of advanced technology would also help bring youth back to agriculture, which has increasingly being dwindling away from the field. “Higher use of technology will lead educated youths to turn back to become agriculturists,” Amar said. |
| Country | India , Southern Asia |
| Industry | Food & Agriculture |
| Entry Date | 02 Sep 2016 |
| Source | http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/ludhiana/community/farmers-to-get-hi-tech-equipment-on-rent-now/286501.html |
