The district administration has fixed a rent of Rs. 1,250 an hour for ‘tyre model combine harvester’ and Rs. 2,150 an hour for ‘chain model combine harvester’.
After calculating the operation cost of the machine and various other overheads that would be incurred by owners of the machines, the officials arrived at the above rents. The officials had earlier obtained a report from the Agriculture University on the permissible rent for paddy harvesters. They then held a meeting with farmers, owners of harvesting machines, the police and RTO before taking a final decision.
Owners of paddy harvesters should not collect more than the above stipulated cost. Action would be taken against those flouting rules, officials said. M. Mahanteshappa, Joint Director of Agriculture, told The Hindu here on Wednesday that a majority of the farmers would invariably hire paddy harvesting machines owing to labour problem.
