Tractors & Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE) has stated that its popular JFarm Services platform’s free tractor rental scheme has assisted thousands of small and marginal farmers in Tamil Nadu in continuing with their agricultural operations despite the impact of the second wave of the Covid pandemic.
As per the statement, ‘under this scheme, approximately 1,55,000 hours of free tractors and farm implement rental services were delivered to the farmers, operating over 1,03,000 acres of land in two months of time.’
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Coverage of the scheme
TAFE rented out about 19,000 Massey Ferguson and Eicher tractors and around 33,500 farm implements to small farmers with two acres or less at free of cost. In Tamil Nadu, the scheme covered 64,000 farmers out of an estimated 50,000 farmers.
‘High-demand implements such as a cultivator, duck-foot, cultivator, disc plough, and rotary tiller were extensively used by farmers under the scheme,’ the statement read.
‘During the second wave of the Pandemic outbreak, the TAFE JFarm Services free tractor rental scheme was critical in assisting small and marginal farmers to continue farming operations. The initiative of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to collaborate with TAFE aided in providing timely assistance and benefited farmers.
‘I am especially pleased that the scheme focuses on needy farmers with landholdings of less than one acre,’ said M R K Panneerselvam, Tamil Nadu Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Providing assistance to small farmers
TAFE’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative aimed to save the farming community from the economic consequences of Covid-19, as well as to mitigate the effects of the pandemic threat on crop cultivation during the critical Rabi harvest and Kharif readiness season.
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‘At this critical juncture, we have been given an opportunity to serve the small and marginal farmers while also playing a role in increasing farmer revenue through a direct benefit system, which has been welcomed by both renter farmers and small farmers,’ said Mallika Srinivasan, the Chairman & Managing Director of TAFE.
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