A national agriculture conference beginning here tomorrow will deliberate on providing advanced farm equipment at affordable rates especially to small and marginal farmers.
The two-day meet, to be attended by top officials and agri scientists in the country, will discuss strategies to be adopted in the ensuing kharif crop season (June to September).
It will be inaugurated by the Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, said an official statement.
According to experts, mechanisation in agriculture is required on a big scale across the country to economise the utilisation of inputs, conserve energy and harness the optimum potential of available resources while boosting farm productivity in a sustained manner.
Existing programmes such as Macro Management of Agriculture and National Food Security Mission that primarily provide financial assistance to farmers have not been able to bring substantial benefits to small and marginal farmers as many of them are not ‘credit-worthy’ for procuring latest equipment, the statement said.
The meet would discuss strategies to popularise region-specific farm mechanisation. The strategies evolved after detailed discussions on important farm matters in the conference will be followed by states in the kharif season.
Paddy, jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet), maize, arhar (pigeon pea), urad (black gram), mung (green gram), groundnut, sunflower and soybean are major food and edible oil crops that are grown in the kharif season.