Chhimi Dema

Agriculture Machinery Centre (AMC) received an award on December 5 in recognition of its effort in making a significant effort to link mountain communities to agricultural mechanisation, consolidating farm machine standards and certification, providing mechanisation training, and innovating needs-based technologies.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) awarded Dr Andreas Schild Memorial Prize to AMC with a felicitation certificate and USD 2,500.

Dr Andreas Schild Memorial Prize is awarded to an individual, organisation or private sector entity based in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) or beyond for outstanding efforts in enabling sustainable and resilient mountain development in the HKH region to benefit the environment as well as communities–particularly the poor, youth, and women.

Previously, the prize was known as ICIMOD Mountain Prize.

AMC’s programme director, Kinga Norbu, said that the team deserved the award.

The centre’s commercial activities were handed over to a state-owned enterprise in 2016 and it focuses on certification, training and research programmes for farm mechanisation.

Kinga Norbu said that the team found innovative technologies relevant to the country’s agriculture sector.

“We worked with clear objectives and delivered more than our targets,” he said.

Some of the relevant farm machines developed are buckwheat de-husker, quinoa polisher, bed-making and mulching laying implements for tractors, power and mini tiller, and passive heating greenhouse, among others.

A press release from AMC said that the centre certified 48 different machines in the past five years.

AMC trained about 4,000 farmers in the operation, maintenance and repair of farm machines and technologies. Around 769 individuals were trained, especially in skilled-based repair training.