Prisoners trained in operating farm machines

The Agriculture Engineering Wing with the support of the Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering, Tavanur, trained 30 remand prisoners from the Kozhikode District Jail in handling modern farm equipment on Friday.

Officials said the prisoners were given basic training in operating tractors, garden tillers, power tillers, tree pruners, brush cutters and climbing machines. The free training was conducted under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Farm Implements and Machinery, they said.

Ahmed Kabeer, Assistant Executive Engineer (Agriculture) and one of the programme coordinators, said the trainees were interested in familiarising themselves with the modern machines and their field-level operations for reducing the strain of manual labour. It was the first time that the department conducted such a field-level training programme for the prisoners in North Kerala, he added.

District Jail authorities proposed the training programme as it was found one of the quickly catching up self-employment openings in the State with the possibility of generating a steady income. According to the officials, interested persons will be given further training in the area of their choice with the support of the Agriculture Department. Arrangements would also be made for the prisoners to obtain work vehicle licence, they added.

Agriculture Department officials said well-trained agriculture technicians had opportunities to work with various private and public farming projects. Purchase of the modern agriculture equipment would never be a hurdle for anyone as public sector banks were keen on funding such self-employment ventures with government subsidy, they said.

Mayor Thottathil Raveendran inaugurated the training programme which was presided over by corporation councillor Usha Devi. Jail DIG K. Sivadas, Agriculture Executive Engineer V. Babu, Associate Professor from Tavanur Engineering College Shaji P. James and Jail Superintendent P. Ajayakumar were present.