As farmers continue their agitation against the central government’s new farm laws near the national capital which has crossed 100 days, there is some solace for the community in Jharkhand.

The Hemant Soren government will be setting up at least two kisan service centres in each of the 24 districts this fiscal to provide agriculture machinery, equipment and other needs for free along with market linkage with neighbouring Bengal and Odisha.

Jharkhand agriculture minister and Congress legislator Badal Patralekh told The Telegraph that in the first phase a total of 45 such kisan service centres will be set up in each Birsa Gaon (selected villages in a pilot project).

“The 45 kisan service centres (KSCs) will also have the facility of custom hiring in the real sense and provide agriculture equipment, fertilisers and seeds suiting the topography and soil texture of that particular village completely free of cost to the self-help groups and these would be community assets for that area,” said Patralekh.

State agriculture director Nisha Oraon Singhmar said the kisan service centre was one of its kind scheme started by the Jharkhand government.

“It is different from a custom hiring centre. In this case, we would be selecting at least two Birsa Gaons in each district which would be adjacent villages. We have selected 45 Birsa Gaons so far and each would be having one kisan service centre. It would be run by self-help groups constituted by the agriculture department comprising villagers. All the equipment, machinery, seeds and fertilisers would be provided free of cost and would be community assets for that village and the revenue earned would be used for the village’s development,” the agriculture director said.

The kisan service centres would also provide market linkage for the farmers.

“We have already studied the demand structure of neighbouring Odisha and Bengal and will soon sign an agreement with the authorities of those states wherein products from Birsa Gaons will be supplied to the villages there round the year at least for one year at a fixed price benefiting our farmers. The department will be deputing officials from the Birsa Agriculture University in each of the kisan service centres and also constitute a project monitoring unit (PMU),” added Singhmar.

Apart from this, the state government would also open 1,000 custom hiring centres across Jharkhand with assistance from the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).

“We will be opening 1,000 customised hiring centres in the state and also distribute 4,400 tractors to the farmers. Besides this, 45 agri-clinics will be also set up by the government this year,” Patralekh told the Assembly on Thursday.

The custom hiring centres would provide machinery and equipment at subsidised rates to the farmers and the centres will have to be operated through LAMPS (Large Area Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies).

More than 1 lakh farmers have benefited from the loan waiver scheme of the Jharkhand government so far, the minister said.