PANAJI:
Mechanisation of farming operations got a big boost in Goa last year with more than 1,500 farmers availing government subsidies and purchasing machinery and other essential implements to switch over in their farms and paddy fields in 2024-25.
Tractors, harvesters and other essential implements were purchased by these farmers and the government spent approximately Rs 4 crore on subsidies to them.
The Agriculture department implements this special scheme to provide subsidies for essential farm equipment including weed cutters, power tillers, tractors and harvesters.
Farmers who buy this machinery get 50 per-cent of the cost in subsidies. For the Scheduled Tribe category farmers, the subsidy goes up to 90% of the cost, a top agriculture department official said, adding that a target of reaching out to 1,600 had been set for 2024-25 but a few hundred short of that figure availed the scheme.
Of the Rs 4-odd crore spent on these subsidies, the Central government bore Rs 2.96 crore (96.91) per cent while the State contributed Rs 1.15 crore (83.39) per cent.
The official said that farmers opting for this scheme in a bid to mechanise operations is increasing owing to the non-availability of farm hands and also the high costs of labour.
In the last five years, a total of 12,368 farmers opted for this scheme which helps mechanise a large part of their farm operations thus saving much of their input costs on labour.
