ANGAD – AJAY (ATMANIRBHAR JEEVIKA ADHIGRAHAN YOJANA)
(आत्मनिर्भर जीविका अधिग्रहण योजना/ Self-sustaining Livelihood Acquisition Scheme)
The small and marginal farmers today are plagued with numerous challenges to keep his farming activity alive and profitable. The challenges faced by the small and marginal farmers in India are:Fragmented small land holdings and reducing farm size year after year.
- Non-availability affordable, multi-purpose, self-propelled farm machinery.
- Decline in availability of draft animals due to financial non-viability.
- 12% reduction in agricultural workforce between 2004-05 to 2011-12 mainly due to farming increasingly being perceived as an unviable profession.
- At present 70% of farm labour are women who are employed as part of the family and friends of the landowner and face limitations in performing critical farming operations.
- Low productivity and profitability.
- Cropping patterns heavily skewed towards grain cultivation, which is unsustainable on small farms.
- Major portion in total cost of crop production is cultivation (i.e., near around 45%) and in cultivation major portion is labour cost which leads to lowering the profitability of farmers
- Capital cost are very high to rent/purchase heavy machineries like combined harvesters etc.
Rural Unemployment
Agriculture forms the mainstay of the rural population which accounts for 70% of the India’s population. There are not enough employment opportunities available for this 70% of India’s population who are living in the rural areas. The unemployment in rural areas lead to huge wastage of human resources which could have been utilised for the purpose of economic development of the country and the unemployed increases pressure on land and other scarce natural resources.
The rural poor – especially agricultural labour – remain trapped in a spiral of subsistence earning as the sole stock-in-trade is labour – their physical strength and stamina. As a result, even in times of labour shortage (e.g. at harvest time) the earnings they command are fixed and governed solely by availability and not by competence.
To mitigate this dual quandary of the absence of employment opportunities in rural areas and unavailability of farm labour and the gap in farm power availability and farm mechanisation solutions we, SAS Motors Limited, have come up with Angad – Atmanirbhar Jeevika Adhigrahan Yojana (ANGAD – AJAY).
SAS Motors Limited incorporated in April 2003 with the mission of making low-cost mechanization technology is available to the Indian Farmers.
SAS Motors Limited is an innovator in agriculture and rural development – and is engaged in developing and innovating tools for the small & marginal farmer and agricultural labourer that help him raise his skills and productivity – at costs less than that of the traditional methods and tools available to him earlier. SAS Motors is actively pursuing its vision of upskilling small farmers and agricultural labour and providing them tools at affordable low costs; thereby developing a new generation of rural entrepreneurs who will, apart from earning a good livelihood, also act as change agents in their areas of operation
Its flagship product is ‘Angad Diesel Hal’ – a gender friendly total solution for mechanization of small farms. Angad Diesel Hal (हल) is a total 360-degree solution for the mechanization of all farm operations. Angad Diesel Hal has been designed to integrate with cultivator, rotavator, MB plough, seeding and planting devices, multi-piston high pressure spray pump, centrifugal pump, 2.5-4.5 KVA electricity generator. It has a gender-friendly and ergonomically designed machine with the diesel consumption of 0.75 litre per hour and minimal cost of maintenance.
The Angad Diesel Hal is not only capable of addressing most of the farming needs as listed above, but is extremely versatile, cost-effective and robust in design. Some of the key benefits are:
- It can till / weed / inter-cultivate from as narrow a width as 18” and can go up-to to 45”.
- Different blade designs’ help to plough / till / weed from soft to hard alluvial soil.
- The Hal can reach fields at high and uneven altitudes, which even a tractor cannot reach due to its design and ability to move at inclines on its rubber tyres.
- The Hal is capable of tilling and weeding fields at incline – which is facilitated by its design for stability and the engine capacity to work even at an angle of 45 degree.
- It is so stable and safe that even women can use it with ease.
- The operating cost of the Hal is 1/10 the cost incurred, if the same work is done by hired labour due to its running cost and speed at which it completes the work.
ANGAD – AJAY (आत्मनिर्भर जीविका अधिग्रहण योजना/ Self-sustaining Livelihood Acquisition Scheme)
Angad-AJAY is being promoted by SAS Motors Limited with an objective of making affordable low-cost farm mechanization available to the Indian farmers through rural entrepreneurs.
Under this scheme, the company would actively provide assistance to the rural youth, agricultural labourers and small and marginal farmers to own Angad Diesel Hal and provide their agricultural mechanisation services to farmers in their catchment area. Apart from giving all technical and handholding assistance for the scheme right from the purchase stage, the company will provide free training to interested without charging any fees. The ANGAD – AJAY will have inter alia the following activities:
- Custom hiring of Angad Diesel Hal and Accessories for all agricultural operation like ploughing, rotovation, interculture, spraying, water pumping, and threshing etc. as well as for transportation.
- Working as our commission agent for ‘Angad’ range of Power Weeders and agricultural implement, and their spare parts as well providing repair & service for the above machineries.
The company will assist the ‘Angad-AJAY’ in following areas:
- Training the entrepreneur on the operations of Angad Diesel Hal and its attachments.
- Training will be given at the company’s training centre free of cost.
- A corporate comfort letter with buy back guarantee at the residual value of the machine will be given to the banks for extending the loan.
- Providing technical & managerial assistance.
- Above all, a fixed commission on the future sale of the company’s products (Angad Diesel Hal & its attachment), their spare parts, will be provided without any extra investment by the rural entrepreneurs/farmers for company’s products sold through their efforts.
