India: Agriculture ministry signs $10bn line credit with India to mechanize farmers

While launching the National Potato Conference and Trade Fair 2018 on Friday, the Principal Secretary State Department of Agriculture Richard Lesiyampe, said the ministry had already communicated with the County Governments so that they could provide the government with the proper technology required in their respective Counties for proper planning.

“As a government we have signed a line of credit of 10 billion US dollars with the government of India so that we can mechanize our agriculture but we are saying this time round we need to go for appropriate technology and equipment because for instance our small scale farmers need a ninety horse power tractor.”

“We have also requested the County governments to provide us with the equipments and technology needed for their respective counties. In counties like Nyandarua, Nakuru and Elgeyo Marakwet, we are telling them that they should also put potato processing equipments in their requirements,” he said.

The PS also noted that the mechanization project would not only benefit farmers in easing their labor requirement but would also help in preservation of their farm produce.

Lesiyampe further said that although mechanization was inevitable, farmers benefitting with the equipments needed to identify the appropriate equipments that would work efficiently and ones that they could rely on.

“We need probably to give farmers a multipurpose tractor that will suit them. May be a tractor that will be used in majority of the farming activities that is, during cultivation, a tractor that has a generator incorporated in it, as well a tractor that can also be used during harvesting,” the PS said.