Training farmers for farm mechanization : need for institutional collaboration

Abstract

Effective utilization of farm machinery requires more than transfer of information. New skills have to be built among farmers, especially those introducing machinery for the first time. Building such skills requires infrastructure, trained personnel and time. The total capacity to train of the Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes of the Government of India at Budni, Hissar and Garladinne as well as the 20 agricultural universities in the country amounts to only about 7,000 a year compared to a need of about 25,000. Girja Sharan discusses how interinstitutional collaboration can help bridge the gap to enable farmers to realize the full benefits of mechanization