The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), Government of India has not provided ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up Farm Machinery Training Testing Institute (FMTTI) in Chhattisgarh, the Central Government has informed.
The Central Government has already established four numbers of Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute (FMTTI) in the country at Budni (M.P.), Hisar (Haryana), Anantapur (A.P.) and Biswanath Chariali (Assam). Based on the request from various State Governments, it was decided to establish more number of FMTTIs.
However now Government has decided to strengthen the existing FMTTIs and other Testing Institutes available in the country, it informed.
Accordingly, at present there is no proposal for establishment of new Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute (FMTTI), the Central Government informed.
Chhattisgarh is among seven states in the country to have made good progress in the field of farm mechanization by utilising the allocated fund, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh had said last year.
The Minister said that during the last three years, more than Rs.3088 crore have been allocated to the State Governments for farm mechanisation under various schemes of the Department. During 2017-18, the allocation for SMAM has been increased more than two times as compared to the previous year (Rs. 577 crore).
Singh said agricultural mechanisation is one of the important factors for sustainable development of the agricultural sector which helps in increasing production through agricultural works, reducing the deficit, reducing the cost of various agricultural works through the better management of costly inputs, increasing the productivity of natural resources and help reduce the difficulties related to various agricultural activities.
He was delivering address at the the Inter Session Meeting of the Consultative Committee held at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Center in Srinagar last year. The subject chosen for discussion during this meeting was ‘Farm Mechanisation’. On this occasion, Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Sudarshan Bhagat, and members of the Consultative Committee were also present.
Singh said that in the last few years there has been a shift has been towards the use of mechanical and electrical sources of power. While in 1960-61, about 92.30% farm power was coming from animate sources, in 2014-15 the contribution of animate sources of power reduced to about 9.46% and that of mechanical and electrical sources of power increased from 7.70% in 1960-61 to about 90.54% in 2014-15.
He said that the degree of farm mechanisation is expressed as a ratio of mechanical power to cultivable unit area, which in India during last 43 years has increased at a very slow pace from 0.48 kW/ha in 1975-76 to 1.84 kW/ha in 2013-14. However, from the year 2014-15 to 2016-17, it has been increased to 2.02 kW/ha which is mainly due to concentrated efforts for promotion of agricultural mechanisation through various schemes of the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare.
The Minister said that due to continuous shrinkage in the average size of the agricultural lands, more lands will fall in the adverse category, which will make individual ownership of agricultural machinery gradually and more informal. Therefore, ensuring availability of sufficient farm power for small farms will be a big challenge. The other challenges in the field of agricultu3l mechanisation are how to overcome skill barriers to provide adequate support to modern technology. In future, it is necessary to establish a link between the possibility of sustainable development of agricultural mechanisation without neglecting the lack of energy and environmental degradation due to low availability of fossil fuels and its high cost.