SILAPATHAR, May 4 - The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dhemaji, an extension wing of the Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, recently inaugurated a Custom Hiring Centre at the No-1 Solokhoni village under the Tribal Sub Plan project of FY 2013-14.
Custom Hiring Centre (CHC) is a modern concept to popularise and achieve the objective of farm mechanisation. CHCs are basically a unit comprising a set of farm machinery implements and equipment meant for custom hiring by farmers. Use of mechanical power has a direct bearing on the productivity of crops, apart from reducing drudgery and facilitating timeliness of agricultural operations.
Usually the small/marginal farmers due to poor economic conditions are unable to own farm machinery on their own or through institutional credit. Therefore, in order to bring farm machinery within the reach of small/marginal farmers, collective ownership in CHCs are being promoted to reap the intended benefit of horizontal technology spread among the users.
The project entitled �Promotion of Agriculture-centric sustainable livelihood security for tribal farmers of Assam� conceived by the Director of Research (Agri), AAU, has been implemented by KVK, Dhemaji covering 70 villages with more than 700 farm families.
As a part of the project, the CHC was established with facilities like tractor, power tiller, paddy thrasher, seed drill, maize sheller, power sprayer, power weedeer etc., to promote farm mechanisation with a permanent implement shed.
The centre was inaugurated by Dr GN Hazarika, Director of Research, (Agri), AAU, Jorhat, in the presence of V Carpenter, Deputy Commissioner, Dhemaji, KVK, officials and hundreds of farmers. Delivering his welcome address Gunjan Gogoi, programme coordinator, KVK, Dhemaji, spoke about the various activities undertaken in the TSP project so far.
Dhemaji DC, V Carpenter urged the farmers to take up farming activities seriously for better income generation and livelihood promotion. In his speech, Dr GN Hazarika, Director of Research (Agri), AAU, Jorhat, made the farmers aware of the steps taken by the AAU towards improvement of farm mechanisation and objectives of the TSP project.
The Chief Scientist, RARS, Lakhimpur, Dr KK Sarma, also delivered a few valuable suggestions to the farmers on the occasion. During the programme, �muga� seeds and Soil Health Card were also distributed to selected farmers. Gunjan Gogoi hosted the programme which was attended by Dr S Maibangsa, Dr AK Saikia, Bibha Ozha, Binita Konwar, Monoranjan Gogoi, Pradip Deuri, Bishnu Narayan Phukan, Raju Konch, Durgadhar Deuri besides hundreds of farmers.
