Agriculture Machinery: Government Asks to Display MRP of Farm Machines.

Government asked farm machinery makers to display maximum retail price, excluding taxes, in a transparent way on their products as levies vary from state to state.

At a Ficci event on farm mechanisation, Additional Secretary in the Agriculture Ministry, Jalaj Srivastava said "We are receiving complaints regarding MRP of products like tractors, power tiller and other agricultural machinery, which in this sector is a matter of concern." He said, MRP must be given, excluding taxes, on farmer’s portal transparently, as the taxes vary in different states.

The long-term availability of productive and happy-labour in agricultural sector is crucial, he said while projecting exponential growth of farm mechanisation in near future. It is forecast that Indian agri-workers are expected to decline to 40.6% in 2020 from 54.6% in 2011.

He said "Thus, there has to be a significant role of farm mechanisation to the extent of taking 50-65% of labour inputs progressively for sustainable agri-growth." Srivastava further said in India the cropping intensity has risen with increase in power availability and also, there is a direct connection between farm power availability and food grain productivity.

farm power availability in 2020 is expected to be 2.2 kW/hectare and productivity at 2.3 tonnes per hectare, he said "From 1951 to 2012 as farm power availability increased from 0.25 to 1.84 kW per hectare, so did the productivity increased from 0.52 tonnes per hectare to 1.92 tonne per hectare."

Farm mechanisation has progressed especially in northern states such as Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. He added, there is considerable scope for ensuring a uniform spread of agricultural technologies across the country.

The official said, "Agri-equipment manufacturers have to be tuned, to encourage and take into its fold this colossal workforce through gender sensitisation." Speaking on the issue, farm machinery maker John Deere Managing Director Satish Nadigar said custom hiring of agri- machineries is picking up in the country.

He said "We continue to design and manufacture machines that feature advanced technology and proven product reliability. This is important to modernising Indian agriculture."

Ambassador of Italy Lorenzo Angeloni said India has emerged as the first market for tractors to Italy while sharing that about two lakh Indian farmers are involved in agriculture sector in his country. In the international conference on farm machineries, 6 countries and business visitors from 25 nations are participating.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/