Paddy harvesting machine boon for farmers

When the farmers of the region are facing problems like labour shortage during the harvest season and increasing daily wages, paddy harvesting machines have come to the rescue of the farming community.

The Agriculture department has come in support of farmers by lending paddy harvesting machines at nominal prices.

With the gram panchayat elections, the farmers are finding it difficult to find labourers as majority of them are busy involved in election campaign. Making use of the situation, the other labourers are demanding more wages.

The Agriculture Department has let out ten paddy harvesting machines on hourly basis. While Rs 2,300 will be charged per hour for the chain model, Rs 1,500 will be charged for tyre model machine.

Besides, a private organisation also has 20 machines for paddy harvesting, that would be given on rent to the farmers. The rent was fixed in a meeting chaired by Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri. The machines will be available for rent at Krishi Yantra Dhare centres.

Anand, a farmer of K R Nagar, who has cultivated paddy on his five-acre land said that for the first time, he harvested paddy using a machine due to unavailability of labour.

“I was following traditional farming method, but due to unavailability of labourers and high wages, I used machines. Though the manual harvesting is better, it is inevitable to go with the machines as it is cheaper and consumes less time,” he said.

According to Agriculture department Joint Director M Mahanteshappa, the use of machinery will be a boon for the farmers during such times. The farmers have cultivated paddy on 1.02 lakh hectare in the district and harvesting has begun. Nearly, 50% of the harvest has been completed in K R Nagar taluk. However, harvesting has just commenced in other taluks, he said.

Paddy procurement

The registration of farmers for paddy procurement has commenced from November 30 and will continue till December 20. The farmers can drop paddy at the centres. The government has fixed a Minimum Support Price of Rs 1,868 for ordinary paddy and Rs 1,888 for grade ‘A’, for the year 2020-21. The officer said that a maximum of 40 quintals can be procured from each farmer.