People in three Gewogs of Karmaling, Nichula and Lhamoi Dzingkha in Dagana are happy to receive two more power tillers in their Gewogs. The Labour Minister Ngeema Sangay Tshempo handed over the power tillers yesterday.
Each Gewogs now have three power tillers each. Next year, they will again receive two more power tillers each, taking the total to five. It is the government’s initiative to handover five power tillers in 205 Gewogs in the country by 2018. As part of agriculture mechanisation programme, government aims to mitigate farm labor shortages and optimize the land utilisation.
The Gups received the power tillers.
“With the power tillers, people no longer use ox to plough fields,” shared Karmaling Gup Gyan Badhur Subba. “The field which used to take a week to plough by ox is now a day’s work.”
As for the largest Chiwog under Lhamoi Dzingkha Gewog, Farmgaon, even having two private power tillers and three from the farm machinery centre cannot meet the demand.
“It is difficult to cover every households,” said Gup Surja Bdr Limboo of Lhamoi Dzingkha. But with additional power tillers they will be receiving next year, villagers are hopeful that distant chiwogs will be benefitted more.
There are over 800 households in these three Gewogs.
Labour Minister also encouraged students to learn farming during the month-long summer break.
Until now, government distributed over 780 power tillers in the Gewogs across the country. The power tillers were purchased at subsidized rates through Japanese grant.
