Dr. D.L.Maheswar, Vice Chancellor UHS, Bagalkot
Introduction:
Agriculture continues to be a major source of income, employment and livelihoods of majority of the people living in rural areas in India. Though the output share from agriculture sector has been reduced from 28.3 per cent in 1993-94 to 14.4 per cent in 2011-12 along with a decline in employment share from 64.8 per cent to 48.9 per cent over the same period, almost half of the workforce in the country still remains dependent on agriculture. Given the low share of this workforce in the GDP, on average, it earns much lower income poorer than its counterpart in industry and services. Therefore, progress in agriculture has a bearing on the fate of the largest proportion of the low income population in India. India is also dominated by small holder farmers who face several challenges in keeping their interest in farming. The farming sector has several important aspects
that need immediate attention to bring economic advantages to millions of farm families especially the small farmers.
These aspects mainly include (1) The output per hectare, which is a common measure of
agricultural productivity, remains low for many crops. There are also large regional variations in productivity within the country. Reasons for low productivity include low and unscientific input uses, poor access to modern technologies and insufficient technological breakthrough in agricultural research in the recent times. (2) On an average, farmers do not realize remunerative prices due
to limited reach of the minimum support prices (MSP) and an agricultural marketing system that delivers only a small fraction of the final price to the actual farmer. (3) Due to continued subdivision and fragmentation, farm land size of the majority of the households has declined to unviable levels and this is inducing farmers to leave farming and look for better and alternative job opportunities elsewhere. These fragmented lands can be made remunerative by collective farming, adopting
mechanization and by brining suitable laws for leasing of lands etc. Changes in the land leasing laws may bring consolidation of land holding at operational level and attract better investment along with access to credit and relief to tenants. It is essential to address these problems to accelerate agricultural growth and bring remunerative prices to farmers. Sustaining farming practices by the small and medium scale farmers on long term basis has several challenges and completion of important farming activities on time is essential for successful crop production. The timely completion of agricultural operations can have significant benefits to the farmers. In the recent past, due to high degree of weather aberrations, the timeliness of agricultural operations has come into sharp focus. It is often seen that the ideal conditions for an
Dr. Ashok S Alur, Special Officer UHS, Bagalkot
agricultural operations such as sowing or intercultural operation exist for a short period of time. If the farmers fail to complete these operations within the ideal time frame, they will have to compromise with the quality and volume of output. These operations require specific equipments and machineries. There is a progressive shift from draft animal power to mechanical power to cope with the work load of intensive agriculture. The use of mechanical power is becoming indispensable for making an optimal use of other resources and on-time completion of various farm operations. Realizing this the governments have given emphasis for mechanization which has become a very crucial input in the development of agriculture with a hope that the transition from animal power to mechanical power can make agriculture successful and can play a key role in modernization of agriculture due to its benefits of improved labor efficiency, higher productivity, efficient use of expensive farm inputs, reduction of human drudgery and timeliness of operations. Since the country has a large number of small farm holders who cannot individually afford to keep machinery and equipments due to their high cost. They can avail these farm machineries and equipments through custom hire centers established by various government programs and projects and get the benefit of mechanization. The custom hire centers are established with the objectives to facilitate resource poor farmers (1) To adopt mechanization on their farms by providing access to the farm implements, equipments and machineries (2) To ensure timely farm operations (3) To reduce the drudgery of the farm labors (4) To overcome the scarcity of farm labors (5) To facilitate enhanced production and productivity (6) To provide farm machinery at affordable prices (7) To improve economic development of farmers. Lot of thinking has gone in to design different models of custom hiring in Karnataka in particular and in India in general. However, sustaining the activities of custom hire centers on long term basis is a challenge which needs to be addressed. Some of the challenges are (1) Accommodating the high initial cost of procurement of various machineries and equipments for the centers (This is taken care by the government and each center is given various implements/machineries through different schemes and subsidies). (2) Lack of knowledge in the aspects of operation, maintenance and repair of equipment which often restricts the use of farm machineries (This is addressed by training the farmers on operation of the farm machineries and equipments). It is however envisaged to ensure the sustainability of custom hire services by deriving income from renting out the farm equipments, implements, machineries and the irrigation pumps and equipments. The mechanization is mainly promoted by Department of Agriculture and Department of Horticulture of Government of Karnataka in partnership with different NGOs and some private sector partners. Initially this agreement has been made for 5-6 years. The share of the government and the operating organizations are as below.
1) The share of the government (Through department of agriculture) for purchase of implements required by the farmers in first year is INR.37.5 lakhs where as the share of Private sector organization is INR.12.50 lakhs. The share of government for purchase of implements in 2nd year is INR.12.50 lakhs where as the share of private sector organization in 2nd year is INR.12.50 lakhs. The
government provides a total grant contribution of INR.50.00 lakhs and the total contribution of private sector is INR.25.00 lakhs (It is almost 75 percent share from Government and 25 percent share of the partnering organization). Monitoring mechanisms: To address the challenge of monitoring of these centers, at the district level a steering committee is constituted to oversee the activities of the custom hire center. This committee is responsible for the implementation, guiding the overall administration and management of custom hire center. It will also fix the rental rates for different machineries. The committee is headed by the Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Panchayat (Chairman), Joint Director of Agriculture (Vice President), Assistant Director (Member Secretary). Other Assistant Directors of the District, Representative of KVK, two farmers representatives, representative of implement manufacturing agency and the representative of service providing private sector organization/service organization/NGO are the members on the committee. The steering committee will be responsible for listing and procurement of implements and fixing of rental
rates of implements and machinery; deciding the purchase of the farm equipments from other sources if the government approved supplier (rate contract) is not able provide the implements and overseeing of the book keeping of the center and take decision on the revision of the rental rates. Types of implements in custom hire centers: Types of the instruments in the centers depend on crops grown
in the district. It also depends on the types of the soils, geographical features and other factors. The important machineries of the center include,(i) Implements required for land development, Sowing/planting, intercultivation, harvesting and post harvest management. (ii)Tractor/power tiller based implements. (iii)Diesel pump sets and irrigation equipments etc Fixing the rental rates for the implements: The rental rates for individual implement/equipment/machinery will fixed based on the criteria such as (i)Period of use of the implement by the farmers and volume of work turned out (ii)Fuel consumed by the machinery and cost of operation and the operator etc . Every center will have a bank account and all financial transactions are carried out through bank account only. The bank account is operated by the center in-charge jointly with the coordinator of the center. All the financial collection of the day are to be paid into the bank latest by 11 am of next day and keep the account book always updated. Management of custom hire service center: For the daily operation and maintenance of the center a minimum of five staff are essential. This includes, Manager, Office assistant, Driver, Mechanic and Technician. The staff appointed by the custom hire service center is as per the fixed norms. The staff involved in the operation and management of custom hire service centers will have the following responsibilities. Responsibilities of the Manager of custom hire service center: The manager shall be responsible for (a) Responsible for the operation, overseeing of daily work and management of the center (b)Collaboration with other centers and guide for smooth running of the center (c)Oversee the book keeping (d) Meeting and discussion with farmers about the services provided by the center and undertake field visits for ensuring the activities of the centre (e)Preparation of six monthly and annual reports and audit reports(f)Ensure the insurance of the machineries and deposition of the rent to the bank (g) Organize review meeting once in every 15 days (h)Keep the account of fuel used/purchased/at the beginning and end of the day Responsibilities of the office Assistant: Office assistant will be responsible for (a) Keep the overall books of the center, details of the daily transactions and report the details of the days business to the Manager’ (b) Keep the details of the accounts for the sake of safety and Coordinate with all staff (c) Documenting the transactions of the center and take care of all implements and equipments of the center and (d) Daily accounting of the income and expenditure of the center Responsibilities of the Driver/operator: The driver will be responsible for (a) Driving/operation of machinery, safety, up keeping/maintenance and taking care of the machinery (b) Reporting the manager about the daily transactions and ensuring parking of the machinery in the center (c) In case of emergencies take the help of local mechanics with information to the manager and (d) Inform the manager in case of accidents and act as per the need
Responsibilities of the private sector organization staff:
Head: The head of the center will be responsible for (a) Overseeing of the CHC, and Serve as member on the steering committee (b)Verification of the progress reports of CHC and promote cooperation with staff and farmers (c)Quality assurance of the implements and preparation of the progress report of the CHC (d) Preparation of requirements of the center Book Keeping: It is essential to keep the books in the CHC. These documents include fixed assets register; petty cash register; Receipt register( both advance and Final receipt register); Depreciation register; Financial statement( weekly basis), List of registered farmers with unique identity number; List of machineries with unique identity number; Log books off all implements/ equipments/machineries; Survey formats-farmers/ machineries; Bank statement; Bank pass book; voucher slips file; advance receipt book/Final receipt book; Attendance book; meeting resolution book ; Staff movement register; List of equipments, Demand Register; display of rental rates, Insurance/road tax and log books.
Major Expenditures of the CHC:
Recurring Expenses: This mainly include, (a) Electrical/ Water/ Fuel bills (b) Depreciation (c) Repair and maintenance (d) Bank interest and (e) Management cost of CHC Administrative Expenditure: This mainly includes monthly salaries of the staff of CHC, Stationery, printing and purchase of furniture Training Expenditure: This includes Staff and farmers training, meeting, campaigns and printing of information leaflets Transparency: It is essential to maintain transparency in the transactions of the center on the following aspects. (i) Display of the list of equipments and display of
rental rates for each implement/machinery (ii) List of registered farmers and details on the advance booking of the implements/machinery by the farmers (iii) Terms and conditions of the renting of implements and Charts on the awareness (iv) Advance payment of the rental rates / Rent paid by each farmer (v) Timely auditing of the accounts and Verification of the transactions Terms and conditions of custom hiring: Facilities of advance booking of implements and machineries is made available and preference is given to farmers on advance booking. This helps the farmers in undertaking the operations on time. The responsibility of the farmers starts from taking the implement from the centre and ends after returning the implement to centre. Rentals fixed are not negotiable and farmers have to verify the receipt given and the money paid to the centre and cancellation of the booking is subject to deduction of some charges. Provision for complaining is possible if the services are not satisfactory or if more rentals are demanded. For the driver less equipments it the responsibility of the farmers to take the equipment and return it in good condition is the important aspect. The implements should be used for the purpose mentioned during the registration only and any damage to the equipment, the farmers renting the implement are responsible. Transfer of implement brought by a farmer to other farmers is not permitted and in case of any loss or damage to the implement/machinery during the
rental period it is the responsibility of the farmers to pay for the loss Advance booking of the implements/machinery: Provision for advance booking of the implements/ machinery is made available with centre is possible with the terms and conditions such as (a)Payment of 20 percent of the rental amount as advance to centre and payment of remaining 80 percent on the day of taking
the equipment (b)If the use of equipment is more than the booked period take the permission of the centre manager for additional use and pay the additional charges to centre and (c)If the use of implements is less than the period booked take the permission of the centre manager and collect the money as per the conditions of centre. With all these mechanism in place it envisaged that this system will help the small holders to realize the benefits of custom hiring.
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