Community-shared tractors in Punjab

The Punjab government has decided that from the next year efforts will be made to equip some hundreds of villages with community tractor-trailers that could exclusively be shared by farmers owning less than five acres of land.

Presently , it is agriculture machinery service centers -a wing of village level cooperative societies in villages in Punjab that provide farmers with community tractors and other essential implements.

This would not only spare farmers with small landholdings the need to buy expensive agricultural technology but also prevent them from falling into the vicious circle of debt , Punjab state farmers commission chairman G.S. kalkat told Times of India.

Mr. Kalkat said on recommendation of the commission, the state government had decided to extend financial assistance of Rs 6 lakh as subsidy to each cooperative society for purchase of implements worth Rs 15 lakh. The society can arrange the remaining amount in the form of loan from Punjab State Cooperative Bank, he added.