from Vinay Pais            
for Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (SM)

Kundapur, Jul 27: Shortage of labour is one of the banes for agricultural operation in spite of population explosion. With the introduction of sowing with the help of the machine made in China, the agriculturists especially in Kundapur taluk seem to have been heaving a sigh of relief.

Padmanabha Kini of Gavali village here is the first agricultural entrepreneur to initiate the application of this new machine in sowing rice in his field on an experimental basis.

The agricultural expansion extension officer of Ullal unit Dr Dhanajay B has designed a programme to educate the farmers not only in the use of machine but also in the system of sowing the rice.

Only two men are required in this modern process. One to operate the machine and the other to sow the seedlings through the machine. Even the family members can replace the hired labourers. It is said that the mat-like sowing system is found to be complimentary to the new machine. There is no need for making the water muddy or ploughing the field even. More often than not our farmers depend on the mat-like planting system.

This is because one cannot depend entirely on tillers for raising seedlings in the event of non-availability of buffaloes for ploughing for the combination of mat-like planting system. The Chinese sowing machine is found to be very economical and viable to the farmers. In the first place it reduces the problem of labour scarcity and the yield would also be rich with a minimum cost of production.