Community threshing yards find no takers

BANGALORE: Absence of proper threshing facilities in the villages force many farmers to use inefficient and unscientific methods of threshing. Come harvest time, in many parts of the village, travellers do their bit by running their car, lorries and motorcycles on the harvest spread out on roads, to be threshed. This method is supposed to cause loss not only to food production and decrease the quality of produce but also posed a risk of vehicle accidents. The Department of Agriculture claims that there would be loss of production up to 15-20 percent and hence are advising the farmers to setup threshing units in each village collectively.“Though the government has taken steps to create ‘Community Threshing Yards’ by giving subsidies not many are coming forward to use the benefit. Instead they prefer to thresh on roads or give preference to individual threshing machines,” said Dharam Raj, additional director, Department of Agriculture.The government gives a subsidy up to Rs 50, 000 per community, whereas, it gives a subsidy up to Rs 5 lakh on individual machinery. “Unless the government promotes the scheme and unless the help comes from the panchayat level to setup the community threshing yards, farmers will not come forward,” said Srinivas Gowda, president of farmers association in Chintamani taluk. He added community threshing yards pose the question that in whose land the yard will be set up. “Threshing on road is risky  for travellers but does not involve as much cost, labour and power required for the community threshing yards. So the farmers will prefer the former option,” he added.