More than 90 per cent of the Custom Hire Centres (CHC) to be set up in 178 hoblis across the State will be run by Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP), a trust promoted by D. Veerendra Heggade, the Dharmadhikari of Dharmasthala.
The centres will rent out agricultural machinery to poor farmers and will be based on the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Of the 178 centres, 161 will be run by SKDRDP and 17 by the Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals, New Delhi.
Each centre will get a government subsidy of Rs. 37.5 lakh in the first year and Rs. 12.5 lakh in the second year. The private partner will pitch in Rs. 12.5 lakh both the years.
The PPP-based network will replace the earlier system where minor machinery such as pumps could be hired through cooperative societies. The system did not offer tractors and high-end machinery as it operated on a much smaller budget.
B.K. Dharmarajan, Director, Directorate of Agriculture, said that the SKDRDP was chosen because it had the “professional expertise and the financial stability” to run a network of this kind.
But, farmer leaders ask why agricultural cooperative societies could not be allowed to run the centres. “Setting up these centres is a good move because labour shortage is an important issue and mechanisation is crucial. But the existing network of agricultural cooperative societies should be used to run them,” KRRS leader Puttannaiah said.
Concurring with this view, Maruti Manpade of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS) said that either the Agriculture Department should run the centres directly or entrust them to cooperatives.
Giving them to a private agency could “turn it into a monopoly”, he said.
Mr. Dharmarajan, however, said that the centres would function in a “completely decentralised manner”. District-level committees, headed by zilla panchayat CEOs, will decide on farm machinery based on “benchmark survey” and fix rents accordingly, he said.
Members will include representatives from a farm machinery manufacturer, an agriculture university and the NGO that runs the centre, besides two progressive farmers and officials of the Agriculture Department.
The machinery rents would be fixed based on the profit margins required to run the centre and maintain the machinery.
T. Sampat Kumar, Director (Credit), SKDRDP, told The Hindu that they want to start as many centres as possible at the earliest because agricultural season had begun. “We hope to start at least some centres by August 15,” he said.
