PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH AND ADOPTION OF FARM MACHINERY UNDER FARM MECHANIZATION IN SUPAUL DISTRICT OF NORTH BIHAR THESIS Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree Of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN FARM MACHINERY AND POWER ENGINEERING BY MRINAL VERMA 2016 Department of Farm Machinery &Power Engineering Vaugh School of Agriculture Engineering Technology SAM HIGGINBOTTOM INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE, TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCES ALLAHABAD, 211007, U.P. INDIA (I.D No – 13 PH FMP101) ABSTRACT Agriculture is the largest private sector occupation in India as well as in Bihar. This occupation is too risky because of dependence on climatic conditions. Hence, the goal of the agricultural production system should be to maximize the income of land owning and landless rural populace to improve their livelihoods. The vulnerability to income and consumption shocks makes it inevitable to develop formal agricultural insurance mechanisms to cope up with such risks. The traditional yield insurance schemes have failed in managing the risks of the poor farmers as evident from their historically high payouts and poor penetration rates. There is a need to develop effective risk management strategies to cover potential losses in yield and hence incomes. The present investigation relates to study the productivity growth and adoption of Farm Implements under Farm Mechanization by the farmers of Supaul District of North Bihar. The purpose is to check the effect of the farm mechanization on status of the farmers of the Supaul district. Rural people of Supaul district depend upon their livelihood on agriculture and its allied activities. In pre-flood situation (before 2008) affected farmers used to raise the crops like Paddy, Wheat, Gram, Vegetables, Jute, and Sunflower etc. After flood, the land became barren due to deposition of sand silt and most of the farmers didn’t get any livelihood option. For getting employment opportunity the people migrated to Delhi, Punjab and other places. To sum up, agricultural mechanization studies had shown that farm mechanization led to increase in inputs due to higher average cropping intensity, larger area and also increased the productivity of agricultural crops. Furthermore, farm mechanization increased agricultural capacity profitability on account of timeliness of operations, better quality of work and more efficient utilization of crop inputs. Undoubtedly, farm mechanization displaced animal power from 60 to 90% but resulted in less time for farm work. Also, it led to progression in the human labour employment for the on-farm and off-farm activities as a result of manufacture, repair, servicing and sales of tractors and improved farm equipment. The results have shown that the small and marginal farmers have also benefited by using new farm machines and their productivity rose up to a considerable height in spite of several constraints. There is need to establish farm machinery custom hiring center at Panchayat level of all the districts to achieve the main objective of mechanization and upgrade the livelihood of the small and marginal farmers. Appendix B Questionnaire for research work in Farm Machinery Name of Research Scholar- MRINAL VERMA ID No. - 13 PH FMP 101 Village…………………… District……………………….. State - Bihar Name of Farmer …………………………………….. Please mark  in the  in front of the choice [Part A] Demographic Data 1. Gender  male  female 2. Age range (excluding months)  below 15 years old  16 – 20 years old  21 – 25 years old  26 – 30 years old  31 – 35 years old  36 – 40 years old  41 – 45 years old  46 – 50 years old  51 – 55 years old  56 – 60 years old  over 61 years old 3. Highest education level  primary school  junior high school  high school  certificate  undergraduate diploma  bachelor degree  master degree or higher 4. Marital status  single  married  divorced  separated 5. The number of family members  1 person  2 people  3 people  4 people  5 people  more than 5 people 6. Average income ( Rs. per month)  less than 3000  3001 – 5000  5001 – 8000  8001 – 10000  10001 – 15000  15001 – 25000  more than 25000 7. Type of agricultural activities (you can make more than 1 choice)  crop grower  rice  sugar cane  wheat  corn  mung bean  pulses  vegetable  others (please specify)…………………………………………………....  livestock  poultry  pig  cow/cattle  others (please specify)………………………………………………….. i 8. Agricultural areas  4 acres or less  5 – 10 acres  11 – 20 acres  21 – 20 acres  21 – 30 acres  31 acres or more 9. Do you own the land?  yes  no (rent)  both own and rent [Part B] Data related to the use of information and communication (ICT) tools in agricultural sector 10. What kind of information tools do you currently use in daily life? (Can make more than 1 choice)  TV  radio  CD/DVD player  home phone  mobile phone  computer  Internet  community loud speakers’  Newspaper 11. Which Information tools would you like to use or learn in order to improve your Agricultural productivity? Please fill in the following table for each type of tool. Perception Information tools Strongly agree Agree Neutral disagree TV Radio CD/DVD Player Home Phone Mobile Phone Computer Internet Community Loud Speakers Newspaper 12. In your family, who plays the main role in conveying new agricultural information to you?  yourself  your children  your spouse  brother(s)  sister(s)  father  mother  others (please specify)………………………….... 13. Other than your family, who or what are your main agricultural information providers? (can make more than 1 choice)  neighbours  local council  extension workers  private company  sales agents government officers  related web sites  others (please specify)………………………………………………………….... 14. Do you believe the following sources give you accurate information? Please fill in the following table for each source of information. Perception Information sources Strongly believe Neutral disbelieve Strongly disbelieve Neighbours local council extension workers private company ii sales agents government officers related web sites 15. What type of information would you like to acquire in order to improve your productivity? (can make more than 1 choice)  pest management  use of fertilizer  soil improvement  market price  use of insecticide  weather forecast  financial management  organic farming  others (please specify)………………………………………………………….... 16. What time of the day would you like to get the new information (Hrs.)?  6.00 – 10.00  10.01 – 13.00  13.01 – 16.00  16.01 – 18.00  18.01 – 21.00  21.01 – 24.00 17. Which positive outcomes have you resulted from the information you have received from these providers? (Please tick any that apply.)  increasing amount of productivity  higher quality of productivity  lower cost  higher selling price  others (please specify)………………………………………………………….... 18. Which negative outcomes have you resulted from the information you have received from these providers? (Please tick any that apply.)  failure of productivity  higher cost but lower productivity  low selling price  complicated processes  no follow-up process to stimulate the success  others (please specify)………………………………………………………….... 19. What kinds of current agricultural support have you used or heard about? (can make more than 1 choice)  market prices via mobile phone services  CD/DVD about agricultural productivity improvement  agricultural forums/web board on the website of Department of Agriculture  weather forecast for agricultural purpose on the website of SAU/ Meteorological Department 20. What are your expectations towards agricultural information dissemination via Information tools? [Part C]- Data related Machinery 21. Have you received any farm machinery from Govt. /NGO on subsidy basis, if yes? Name of machine Actual price Subsidy amount Actual price 1. 2. 3. 4. iii 22. Machinery Inventory Bullock drawn machinery Nos Tractor drawn Nos Country ploughs Tractors  35 hp < 35hp Seeding Implements Power tiller, hp Blade harrow / Bakhar MB plough Bullock carts Cultivators Sprayers Disc harrows Rotavator Any other machinery, specify Seed-ferti-drill Planter Threshers Chaff cutters Diesel pump sets, hp Electric pumsets, hp Trailers Other, specify 23. Major crops grown S No. Name of crops Average yield, q/ha Rates, Rs/q Kharif season 1 Paddy 2 Soybean 3 Cotton 4 Maize 5 Millet 6 Green gram 7 Black Gram 8 Pigeon pea 9 Other I Ii Iii Iv V Rabi Season 1 Wheat 2 Gram 3 Mustard 4 Peas 5 Rabi Jowar iv 6 Sugarcane planted 7 Sugarcane ratoon 8 Potato 9 Other I Ii Iii Iv 24. Existing mechanization status S No. Crop Operations Existing practices 1. Seed bed preparation B.O/T.O MB plough, cultivator, disc harrow, Rotavator Sowing/planting Seed-ferti drill,planter Irrigation Flood, furrow, sprinkler. Drip Weeding/interculture Hand tools, animal drawn, power drawn Plant protection Knap sack, foot, power Harvesting Sickle, chopper, reaper Threshing Thresher, combine 2 Seed bed preparation B.O/T.O MB plough, cultivator, disc harrow, Rotavator Sowing/planting Seed-ferti drill,planter Irrigation Flood, furrow, sprinkler. Drip Weeding/interculture Hand tools, animal drawn, power drawn Plant protection Knap sack, foot, power Harvesting Sickle, chopper, reaper Threshing Thresher, combine 3 Seed bed preparation B.O/T.O MB plough, cultivator, disc harrow, Rotavator Sowing/planting Seed-ferti drill,planter Irrigation Flood, furrow, sprinkler. Drip Weeding/interculture Hand tools, animal drawn, power drawn Plant protection Knap sack, foot, power Harvesting Sickle, chopper, reaper Threshing Thresher, combine 4 Seed bed preparation B.O/T.O MB plough, cultivator, disc harrow, Rotavator Sowing/planting Seed-ferti drill,planter Irrigation Flood, furrow, sprinkler. Drip Weeding/interculture Hand tools, animal drawn, power drawn Plant protection Knap sack, foot, power Harvesting Sickle, chopper, reaper Threshing Thresher, combine 5 Seed bed preparation B.O/T.O MB plough, cultivator, disc harrow, Rotavator Sowing/planting Seed-ferti drill,planter Irrigation Flood, furrow, sprinkler. Drip Weeding/Interculture Hand tools, animal drawn, power drawn v Plant protection Knap sack, foot, power Harvesting Sickle, chopper, reaper Threshing Thresher, combine Seed bed preparation B.O/T.O MB plough, cultivator, disc harrow, Rotavator Sowing/planting Seed-ferti drill,planter Irrigation Flood, furrow, sprinkler. Drip Weeding/interculture Hand tools, animal drawn, power drawn Plant protection Knap sack, foot, power Harvesting Sickle, chopper, reaper Threshing Thresher, combine 25. Information on prevailing custom hiring of farm machinery S. No Name of machinery Crop Operation Charges, Annual use, h Rs/h Rs/ha 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 26. Change in production and thus livelihood in terms of using modern farm machinery vi vii APPENDIX C Program for the analysis of data collected from different blocks #include<stdio.h> int main() { int count=1,year_num; float Rate; unsigned long CurrentYr; unsigned long NextYr; while (count<=1) { printf("Enter the initial egret production: "); scanf("%d",&CurrentYr); printf("Enter the rate: "); scanf("%f",&Rate); printf("Year Production\n"); printf("---- ----------\n"); if ((CurrentYr>0 && CurrentYr<1000000) && (Rate>0 && Rate<4)) { ((float)NextYr) = CurrentYr; for(year_num=0;year_num<=25;year_num++) { ((float)NextYr) = Rate * NextYr * (1-NextYr/1000000); printf("%4d%12d\n",year_num,NextYr); } break; } else if ((CurrentYr < 0 || CurrentYr > 1000000) || (Rate<0 || Rate>4)) { printf("Invalid Input!"); printf("Enter the initial egret production: "); scanf("%d",&CurrentYr); printf("Enter the rate: "); scanf("%f",&Rate); if ((CurrentYr>0 && CurrentYr<1000000) && (Rate>0 && Rate<4)) { ((float)NextYr) = CurrentYr; for(year_num=0;year_num<=25;year_num++) { printf("%4d%12d\n",year_num,NextYr); ((float)NextYr) = Rate * NextYr * (1-NextYr/1000000); } break; 1