The Arecanut Research and Development Foundation (ARDF) will conduct a three-day ‘agri machinery fair’ in November.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr K. Padmanabha, Managing Trustee of ARDF and President of Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd, said that farm labour scarcity is affecting the agriculture sector. Mechanisation of agriculture has become evident in such a situation.

In this regard, ARDF will conduct a three-day fair on agriculture machineries at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district from November 2. Agriculture machinery manufacturers and inventors would participate in the fair.

Apart from machineries related to arecanut crops, other machineries related to animal husbandry and horticulture crops would be on display at the venue. Machineries from Israel and China will also be exhibited.

One of the highlights of the fair would be agriculture-related project competition for engineering college students. Best projects will be rewarded at the fair.

There will also be technical sessions on various subjects at the fair. Banks will be asked to set up their stalls at the fair and to finance the agriculture machinery manufacturers and buyers.

Mr Padmanabha said that nearly 50,000 farmers from Karnataka and Kerala are expected to participate in the fair.

vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in