ICAR-CIWA Established Women led Small Scale Custom Hiring Centres

ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture (CIWA), Bhubaneswar, established women led small scale Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) in Puri, Khordha, Bhadrakh, Keonjhar and Koraput districts of Odisha. The Memorandum of Agreements (MoAs) had signed with 27 Women Farmer’s Interest Groups (FIGs)/ Self Help Groups during 8-10 March 2025 for establishing of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) under different schemes like Government of India’s Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) & Research Projects. Twenty-sevenWomen Farmer’s Interest Group and Self Help Groups comprising more than 250 women farmers from marginalised communities involved agriculture and allied activities, participated in the programme. ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar has taken a step to establish Custom Hiring Centre under Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) fund with the aim to provide need based small tools and equipments.
These CHCs will not only aid in drudgery reduction provide additional income through renting of implements, enables the small and marginal women farmers to take up farm operation on time, offset the adverse economies of scale due to high cost of individual ownership and also improve mechanization in places with low farm power availability.