Dr P S Rangi, consultant, Punjab Farmers' Commission, said, "The basic idea is to cut down on the input costs. At present, machinery is adding to the input costs by almost 15- 20 per cent. We want that farmers of one block have common machinery, which they can hire and use. The farmers need not buy all the equipment and unnecessarily add to their costs."

Dr Rangi said, "These centres will be allocated to co-operative societies that are doing well and in case we do not find one such society in a block, then it will be given to a small farmer or a village artisan or an agriculture graduate living in the village." "In case the centre is allocated to an individual, then he can add as many machines as he deems fit," added Rangi.

About the role of the PFC, he said, "Our role will be to help the person or the body taking care of the centre get an easy bank loan at 2.5-3 per cent less interest than the existing public lending rates and also provide a subsidy of 33 per cent."

"The basic idea is to help each block create it own bank of agriculture machinery," he added.