Mustang. Loghekar Damodarkunda rural municipality has distributed power tillers to the farmers. The rural municipality distributed subsidized hand tractors to the farmers of all the five wards in the first phase on Monday based on the demand recommendation as per the annual approved ‘Agricultural Mechanization’ program of the current fiscal year.

Deepak Khadka, chief of agriculture section, said the rural municipality has allocated Rs 2.5 million for providing tractor grant. According to Chief Khadka, 100 hand tractors worth Rs 56,500 per hand would be distributed with 45 per cent subsidy of the rural municipality and 55 per cent cost sharing of beneficiary farmers.

In the first phase on Monday, 35 hand tractors were distributed in Charang and Marang of ward no. 1 and 10 in Dhee and Surkhang villages of ward no. 4, said Branch Chief Khadka.

The rural municipality will distribute the remaining 55 tractors to the farmers of ward no. 2, 3 and 5 in the second phase, said Ward No. 1 chair Tedhinduk Thakuri. Although there is a tradition of ploughing the fields with the help of cattle and huts, in the recent past, farmers have been attracted towards mechanization due to lack of human resources, youth migration, difficulty in ploughing the fields in the traditional style, cost and time.