The Karnataka state government will soon launch an agri mobile app to help farmers rent machinery and equipment like tillers, harvesters, weeders, tractors, etc. for a few hours or a day, as and when required.
The rent will be 20-25% less than the prices in the market. So a tractor that is available at an average rent of Rs. 500 per hour will be available for Rs. 300-350 on the app.
Picture for representation only. Source: Flickr
“The state’s e-governance cell has been entrusted with the job of evolving the app model to enable sharing of agricultural machinery and equipment, similar to Uber and Ola applications This is being done to deliver technology to the farmers at their doorstep and also reduce the cost they bear,” E Gnagappa, joint director (HRD) of state agriculture department told The Times of India.
He added that the government is also considering a plan to launch a toll-free number for farmers who might not be comfortable using the app. The government has signed up with leading tractor manufacturer and some non-profit organizations to set up 175 service centres in each taluk of the state where these products will be available for rent. They are expected to be operational in the next three months.
B Janardhan, a senior researcher at the University of Agricultural Science told TOI that farmers with small or marginal landholdings will benefit from the app, other than those who are still using outdated equipment on their farms. Many of these farmers are not able to afford farm machinery in spite of the fact that the government offers them at subsidised rates. For them, the facility to rent at cheaper rates will prove to be a boon. About 1.30 lakh farmers have shown interest in using this app.
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