The fuel price rise has taken a heavy toll on farming, as several agricultural processes depend on fuel, say farmers from the district. Most of the farmers rent tractors and other farm equipment. Right from tilling, ploughing, sowing and transportation of produce to markets, the use of diesel is important, say farmers.Farmers say people who rent out tractors have hiked the rent citing the diesel price hike. Several farm implements such as tillers, discs and rotovators need tractors to be run on the field. “Earlier, the hourly rent of a tractor was around Rs500. Earlier this year, people who rent out tractors hiked it to Rs600. On Monday, they raised it to Rs700,” said C Duraisamy, a farmer from Idikarai.For an acre of farm land, the tiller has to be run for 45 minutes, the rotovator for 1 hours and 30 minutes and the disc for three hours, said Duraisamy. “So the tractor usage is for 5 hours and 15 minutes. On Monday, the tractor rent was been hiked by Rs100 an hour. So the total increase per acre is Rs525. We have an eight-acre farm and have to shell out Rs4,200 more,” he said.R Ganesan, another farmer from Chettipalayam near Podanur, said earlier the availability and cost of manual farm labour was an issue which was taken care of by mechanisation. “But now, the increase in fuel prices and the subsequent increase in tractor rent have again increased the expenditure,” he said. Ganesan added that some tractor owners hike their rent even up to Rs900 per hour.Farmers said those who depended on rain for cultivation had to till their land after the rain to prevent growth of weeds. Crops such as tomatoes and some pulses have a three-month cycle, whereas crops such as sugarcane have a six-month cycle. “Farmers who cultivate either kind of crops have to depend on tractors and other farm equipment more than once a year, so they are burdened by the hike in tractor rent.”Also, middlemen who transport produce from farms to market reduce the price they pay to farmers citing the losses they incur due to the diesel price hike, said Ganesan. “But they sell it for a higher price at the market again, citing the hike. So both farmers and customers are at a loss,” he added.

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