| |JUNE 20229underutilization, leading to inadequate income to repay installments/loans. Dependency on key driving factors like uneven rainfall, delayed harvest, disparity in trends across regions & frequent price hikes consequent to the rise in commodity prices also have a bearing on the demand. One cannot ignore the impact of climate change either. US has gone ahead and announced future trading of water considering the expected impact of climate change. Given that most of Indian agriculture is dependent on flood irrigation, the impact is likely to be visible in India too. Moreover, we are caught in a self-destructive Wheat-Paddy cycle. It's time for us to change the cropping pattern from flood irrigation to drip irrigation. The focus could be on Pulses & Oil seeds which have traditionally only increased our import bills. This shift could further drive up the need for mechanization. India is committed to reducing its carbon footprint to protect the environment. New emission norms for agriculture tractors could soon be put into place too. Implementation of new norms attracts adoption of new technology i.e. CRDI engines, TC IC (Turbo Charged Inter Cooler) against NA (Naturally Aspirated) engines etc. On one hand this may bring new technology to the market, but it may dampen demand due to higher prices and affordability (in the absence of Government support).Anyone who has remotely studied the growth of this country would be able to conclude that India's population has grown far more rapidly than the nation's agricultur-al production. India is the world's largest tractor manu-facturer by volume, yet mechanisation levels remain dis-turbingly low. Tractor ownership is common among bigger farm owners for mechanisation but it has been out of reach for lots of small and marginal farmers due to small land ownership and continual fragmentation owing to econom-ic constraints. If India is to avoid a major food shortage in the future, farming must be made a sustainable profession. SMAM (Small Mission on Agricultural Mechanization) was introduced by the Government of India in 2014-15. This program aims towards `reaching the unreached' by mak-ing agricultural machinery accessible and affordable to Small Marginal Farmers (SMFs) through the establishment of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs). The presence of small & marginal farmers does in fact continue to constrain en-hanced adoption. But in a more real sense, small holders are not the constraint but the size of the available equip-ment & their related prices.The concept of custom hiring in fact is not new, it existed in an unorganized manner in the past too, where the small & marginal farmers are availing the services on pay per use basis from the local service provider in their village. Recently, some state governments have taken the initiative of establishing CHCs by offering subsidies on Capex. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan are some of the leading states providing farm equipment services on pay per use basis through these centres. To introduce this concept in an organized manner using digital platform, numerous agritech start-ups like Trringo, Samunati, JFarms, Agribolo, EM3, and others have entered to bring forth farming-related advanced technological mechanisms to help farming become a sustainable and profit-yielding enterprise by adopting the farming-as-a-service (FaaS) model, where farmers, agricultural equipment manufacturers and government policies are on one platform. New offerings like 'Our tractor your diesel' have also recently been introduced in Akola (Maharashtra) for women who have lost their husbands either due to Covid or suicide.The establishment of Custom hiring centres for farm equipment rentals, as well as incentives such as capital investment subsidies, is aiding the cause. This sector will experience a digital twist that will transform mechanisation in agriculture, from offering agricultural equipment rentals through call centres and mobile apps to leveraging analytics for predictive demand generation. However, this will require additional support from the government in changing mindsets of the local farmers. Currently these centres have not been extremely successful as SMFs are unable to even pay the rental charges on an immediate basis resulting into their continued and forced dependency on local service providers who offer them credit. Farm equipment rentals can become a big economic opportunity for private entrepreneurs/companies and larger farmers provided a policy change; subsidised rental rates rather than capex will be a game changer. The end all of these solutions must be that productivity and environment protection have to go hand in hand which demands for more inclusive policies tailored towards efficiency. The concept of custom hiring in fact is not new, it existed in an unorganized manner in the past too, where the small & marginal farmers are availing the services on pay per use basis from the local service provider in their village
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