Govt floats global tenders for micro-irrigation

Maharashtra has become the first state in the country to go for global tenders in micro irrigation projects from this year. It will include both drip and sprinkler irrigation projects from 2012-13. Sixty six companies bidded recently for it, out of which 20 qualified. Earlier, as per the central scheme, farmers used to get subsidies for the equipment for drip and sprinkler projects. Every year Rs 1,400 crore was spent on micro-irrigation projects out of which 50 percent was subsidy from the state and central government. However there were no specific guidelines for implementation. Subsidies earlier went to the companies and not the farmers, officials in the agriculture department said. As per the new policy, those who want to do business in the state should go for global tenders. "Earlier, only manual equipment were sold. Now farmers have a variety - manual, semi-automatic and automatic equipment," officials added. According to them, the cost of the machinery has come down by 14 to 30 per cent due to competition induced and transparent procedure. The subsidies amount will be deposited farmers’ bank account.