Socio-economic impact of mechanisation in paddy group farming
| dc.contributor.advisor | Smitha, Baby | |
| dc.contributor.author | Sreejith, K J | |
| dc.contributor.author | KAU | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-09-20T10:05:32Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-09-20T10:05:32Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-09-23 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Rice is a labour-intensive crop which requires a work-concentrated harvest. Farm mechanization is one of the important ways to overcome this situation. Paddy cultivation needs appropriate mechanisation to cope with the increased cost of cultivation due to high wages and scarcity of labourers. The mechanization through group farming approach, resulted in retention of paddy area and the cultivation of some barren land various regions. Through the group farming approach the authorities were successful in identifying production constraints in various areas and regions and developing separate productivity-boosting packages. Over the past ten years, there has been a major emphasis on mechanization of paddy cultivation in the villages across Kerala, including Palakkad. An institutional arrangement based on collective organisation has overcomed the twin problems of labour shortage and lack of capital investment in machinery faced by small farmers. These collective ventures based on partnerships of farmers and labourers had the full support of the State government. Local governments are also providing financial support to purchase various machines as part of the mechanization drive in paddy cultivation. All these efforts have resulted in various socio-economic benefits to the paddy cultivators in Kerala. Hitherto few attempts has been made in the State to assess the socio-economic impact of rice mechanisation on farming community and hence the present study is attempted. The current study entitled “Socio-economic impact of mechanisation in paddy group farming” was conducted in Palakkad district which was selected purposively as it has its maximum area under rice cultivation in Kerala and also owing to the presence of different types of successful group farm mechanisation interventions in paddy. Data were collected among 120 farmers and 40 farm labourers randomly from the Padasekhara Samithies /labour banks where mechanization is practiced, to constitute a total sample size of 160 respondents. Respondents has been selected by multistage sampling method among the two blocks i.e Alathur and Chittur which representing maximum area of paddy cultivation and where different rice mechanization programs implemented The study results showed that majority of the farmers (85.8%) belonged to the old age category (>55 years) while majority (87.5%) of the labourers belonged to the middle aged category (35-55 years). A large proportion of the farmers is having high school education, while majority of the labourers is having secondary education. The study results showed that the average size of area under paddy cultivation is 2.97 acres. The group dynamics effectiveness index of farmers and labourers following the Bhatt (2009) scale was also computed. The results showed that, the group leadership holds the highest percentage score (51.41%) for the farmers, while group cohesiveness holds the highest score among the labourers (51.34%). The decision making process is found to have an higher weightage since that the decision is to be followed by all the members in the group. Perceived Socio-economic impact Index of mechanisation in paddy group farming for each individual has been obtained. It could be concluded that majority of the paddy farmers (69%) had a medium impact due to mechanization while 18 percent of them had only low impact. While majority (57.5%) of the farm labourers perceived medium impact due to mechanization, 22.5 percent of them perceived a higher impact. Among the farmers the highest percentage score (66.73) was gained for the impact on time spent on farming. From the results it could be concluded that impact on drudgery reduction and employment gained were perceived as the major impacts of paddy mechanization among the labourers. The profile charecteristics of farmers and labourers was analysed using the spearman correlation. The results inferred that, there exists a positive significant relationship between annual income, extension contact, innovativeness, area under paddy cultivation with the perceived socio-economic impact index. Age is found to have a negative and significant correlations with the perceived impact index. The independent variables viz. training received, annual income, extension contact, scientific orientation and attitude towards collectivism had positive and significant correlation with perceived impact index in case of labourers. A significant and positive correlation between GDI and Perceived Socio-economic impact index indicates that better group dynamics among the members of Padasekharam as well as labourer groups play a critical role in paddy mechanization The challenges faced by the farmers and labourers for mechanisation in paddy group farming was analysed using garrett ranking. Eventhough the mechanisation is adopted in almost every Padasekharams, Lack of timely and local availability of skilled labour at cheaper rate to operate the machines available with Padasekhara Samithi. Higher cost of spare parts of machines for repair and maintenance is the major challenges among labourers. Majority of the labourers still needs to improve their skills in repair and maintenance of machines. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810214726 | |
| dc.keywords | Department of agricultural extension education | |
| dc.keywords | mechanization | |
| dc.keywords | cultivation | |
| dc.keywords | farming | |
| dc.keywords | paddy | |
| dc.language.iso | English | |
| dc.pages | 97p. | |
| dc.publisher | Department of agricultural extension education,college of agriculture, Vellanikkara | |
| dc.sub | Agricultural Extension | |
| dc.theme | The current study entitled “Socio-economic impact of mechanisation in paddy group farming” was conducted in Palakkad district which was selected purposively as it has its maximum area under rice cultivation in Kerala and also owing to the presence of different types of successful group farm mechanisation interventions in paddy. | |
| dc.these.type | M.Sc | |
| dc.title | Socio-economic impact of mechanisation in paddy group farming | |
| dc.type | Thesis |