- Department of Agriculture is opening five centers in association with the NGO’s where farm equipment will be available on rent and it is called as “ custom hire centers”
- Panja in Sullia taluk; Uppinangady in Puttur taluk; Pane Mangalore in Bantwal taluk; Gurupura in Mangalore taluk and Kuvettu in Belthangady taluk are the places where these centers will open
- The rent rates are fixed lesser than the market price and that of the private vendor and the committee will fix the rent on per-hour and per-day basis based on the requirement
- With the help of NGO’s such centers will be opened all over the state, Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP), a non-government organisation, would manage the centres in 25 districts, including Dakshina Kannada and Udupi
- A committee headed by CEO’s of zilla panchayat will decide and fix the rate for the equipment and this team will also have a farmer representative
- In the beginning the NGO’s have to invest 2.5 crore for all the five centers and purchase the equipment and the first year the government will give Rs. 37.50 lakh to each centre as subsidy
- By the second year each center has to buy equipment worth 25 lakhs for which the government will pay 12.5 lakhs subsidy for each of the center and by the third the government has to manage by their own
- Rent collection by the equipments provided will be the source of salary for the staff and the accounts are subjected to auditing for six years
- Read at: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/now-farm-equipment-on-rent/article6302749.ece