More funds required for agriculture mechanization, says standing committee

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₹158.6 million (BE) against ₹ 217.7 million in 2019-20.  “Therefore, the agriculture department should impress upon the finance ministry about the need of the hour for investing money in R&D for farm mechanization particularly for small and marginal Farmers, as mechanization plays a key role in improving agricultural production and productivity," the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture, animal husbandry and food processing said.

Currently, the overall agriculture mechanization level of the country is 47%, which is lower than that of other developing countries such as China (59.5%) and Brazil (75%). The panel has urged the agriculture ministry to strive to achieve 75% in farm mechanization from the present 47% in a much shorter period than 25 years earlier.

The committee noted that contribution of agricultural mechanization in India leads to savings in seed 15- 20%, in fertilizer 15-20%, improvement in germination rate 7-25%, saving in time 20-30%, in weed 20-40% in labour 20-30%, increase in cropping intensity 5-20% and increase in crop yield 13-23%. Small and marginal agricultural land holdings--of less than 2 hectare--account for 86% of the total operational holdings that require special efforts for mechanization.

The agriculture ministry is providing a subsidy of about 40-50% of the cost of the equipment to small and marginal farmers for their purchase of tractors, power tillers, combine harvesters, rotavators and rice transplanter under sub-mission on agricultural mechanization (SMAM). Since the implementation of SMAM in 2014-15, total ₹5,377.7 crore has been released under SMAM against which 14,24,179 machines were distributed.