Most of the power tillers in the gewogs of Dagana District have not been utilised. Farmer cited unfavourable landscape and lack of full time operators as the reason.
The agriculture ministry distributed the power tillers in 2015. Of the 3,500 acres of wetland, only 126 were tilled by power tillers, last year. This means, only 70 of the 4650 households have used power tillers for agricultural operations.
Farmers said poor road accessibility coupled with high charges for hiring tillers have dissuaded them to use power tillers. At present, gewog offices allow farmers to hire a tiller for eight hours by paying Nu 1,400.
“Just now, we are charged for taking power tiller from the garage at the Gewog Office to our farms. It would be relieving for us if such charge is waived off and charge us for using the tiller in the fields,” said a farmer of Tseza Gewog.
Some other farmers added that for the optimum use of power tillers, improving road connectivity is necessary.
“Most of our farms are far from the road point. So we would appreciate if road connectivity is improved and we also need full time operator to operate tillers,” said another farmer from Khebisa gewog, Damchoe.
The Dagana Dzongkhag Agriculture Officer, Passang Tshering said the charge for travel distance of driving power tiller from gewog office to farms is exempted if farmers in group hire it.
“What people need to understand is that this system might imply if single individual uses the power tiller. Farmers from same village can propose to avail themselves of the tiller service, only then we are to reach the tiller to their fields free of charge,” added Passang.
However, the situation is expected to improve as the Dzongkhag received four more power tillers recently. The Agriculture and Forests Minister, Yeshey Dorji handed over a power tiller each to Tashiding and Gozhi Gewogs and two others were given to Karna Gewog. Also, power tiller operators are being trained at Gelegphu Regional Agriculture Machinery Center. Dagana has 18 power tillers.
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