BALA HUSSAIN REDDY, P.MADHUKAR, BEESU2022-05-132022-05-132022-12-22D6138https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810184723AWARENESS AND ADOPTION OF FARM MECHANISATION IN MAJOR CROPS IN KURNOOL DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESHFarm mechanization in India is still in its nascent stages and during the last two decades has been able to achieve a meager growth of less than 5 per cent. The sector faces critical challenges in terms of large share of small and marginal farmers, declining land holding sizes, high cost of farm machinery and equipment, inappropriate technology, undeveloped markets, complex operations, maze of legislation and insufficient policy framework. Land size, cropping pattern, market price of crops including Minimum Support Price (MSP), availability of labour and cost of labour are the major factors deciding the growth of agricultural mechanization in India. Unlike other agricultural sectors, farm mechanization sector in India has a far more complex structural composition. With continued decrease in average farm size, more farms will fall into the adverse category thereby making individual ownership of agricultural machinery increasingly uneconomical. Government of India, in recognition of this potential had envisaged increase of farm power availability from the present level of 0.93 kW/ha to 2 kW/ha during the 12th plan period (2012-2017). “Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM)” is one such initiative towards achieving this objective. As majority of Indian farmers belong to small and marginal category, purchase of farm equipment is a significant investment for them. xix Reasonable financing norms are a must for making farm equipment and machineries available at affordable price and enhance farm mechanization. An issue that has been persistent in financing is the purchase of standalone implements. This adds to the “tractorization” trend that is visible in the industry and doesn’t add to overall mechanization. Industry stakeholders feel that commercial banks must be encouraged to provide adequate financing various farm equipment. This is seen by many industry sources as the biggest impediment to growth. Banks can finance the custom service units managed by individuals, institutions or organizations who maintain a fleet of tractors, bulldozers, well-boring equipment, threshers, combines, etc., and undertake farm work for farmers on contract basis, under Priority Sector. Farm mechanization in India faces constraints like high initial cost of equipment, lack of knowledge in the aspects of operation, maintenance and repair of equipment, repair and maintenance under individual ownership coupled with lack of space for shelter, orientation towards the use of tractors and allied equipment, suboptimal asset capacity utilization on account of crop specific requirements. To overcome this, virtual or real consolidation of the widely fragmented and scattered land holdings in many parts of the country, extension of benefits of mechanization to all cropping systems including horticultural crops, enhancement of the average farm power availability to minimum 2.5 kW/ha to assure timeliness and quality in field operations and use of precision and efficient equipment to improve the quality of operations is required. Though there are many suitable farm implements are available, farmers doesn’t have proper awareness over the machinery due to lack of many factors. Many new implements are available that are friendly to small farmers and farmers have been utilizing the age old machinery for decades. To seal the gap in between the study has been taken out for the consideration of farmers needs as well as to increase the awareness by extension personnel, KVK officials and other NGOs who are working for this cause. Many studies have shown a direct relationship between farm mechanization (farm power availability) and farm yield. Hence to ascertain the awareness and adoption of the farm machinery this study has been considered for research purpose in Kurnool district as the district have both irrigated and unirrigated crops in equal xx proportions as well as with diversity in crops and cropping patterns. The study was carried with major crops of Kurnool district i.e. cotton, bengalgram, and groundnut crops. Among them cotton is Kharif crop, bengalgram is Rabi crop and groundnut can be grown in both seasons. Ex-post-facto research design was used for the study. The study was carried out in six mandals of Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh which were purposively selected, where the major crops area was more. A sample of 40 farmers was selected for each crop randomly from two mandals, and from each mandal two villages were selected purposively with highest sown area. Totally three crops were selected viz. cotton, bengalgram, and groundnut collectively 120 farmers were randomly selected for the study. The data was collected by personnel interview method and analyzed by employing suitable statistical tools. Fifteen independent variables were subjected to statistical analysis for the purpose of categorization of the respondents and for studying their relationship with dependent variable i.e. awareness and adoption of farm mechanization in major crops. Majority of the respondents were middle aged, having primary education with medium size of family, small farm size, medium farming experience, medium level of extension contact, medium level of social participation, mass media exposure, medium level of economic orientation, risk orientation, management orientation, innovativeness and decision making ability. Correlation analysis revealed that age of the farmers was negative and significant relationship with awareness and adoption of farm mechanization. The variables such as education, annual income, farming experience, extension contact, social participation, mass media exposure, innovativeness and economic orientation were found to be positive and highly significant correlated with technological gap at 0.01 level of significance. Whereas, the variables like family type, family size, farm size, risk orientation and decision making ability were found to be positive significant correlation with technological gap at 0.05 level of significance. Study revealed that out of 15 independent variables, age, education, annual income, farming experience, extension contact, mass media exposure, social participation risk orientation and innovativeness have contributed significant variation for the dependent variables awareness and adoption of farm mechanization. xxi The major problems perceived by the farmers were broadly “Economic constraints” were the hindering constraints in the adoption of farm mechanization as considered by the respondents with 90.31 per cent. “Infrastructural constraints” ranked second with 86.25 per cent, “Situational constraints” ranked third with 82.28 per cent, “Information constraints” ranked fourth with 78.33 per cent, and “Technological constraints” ranked last with 73.67 per cent. The suggestions given by growers were, individual farm equipment for small and marginal farmers with ease of financing and low rate of interest would support the farmers in adoption of farm implements. Increase in the quantum of subsidy as well as increase in number of units under subsidy portion will facilitate the weaker section farmers from the influential and big farmers. Priority should be given to small and marginal farmers for government schemes and intense vigilance should be made to reach the implement to the proper end user.EnglishThesis