Book Description

The present study has been carried out in Eastern Dry Zone of Karnataka which is one of the major agricultural production zone facing sever labour shortage and have scope for mechanization. The primary data for the study has been collected from the 30 CHS providers and 150 farmers. The study focused on characteristic features, farm machinery inventory available with different custom hire service (CHS) providers, economic feasibility, investment pattern, benefits in use of different CHS providers and problems faced by the farmers as well as the CHS providers in the study region. The results indicated that the government subsidized Non Governmental organization (NGO) operated CHSCs are following stringent norms in providing farm machinery services and payments towards services compared to other CHS providers in the study region. The NGO operated CHSC in Chikkaballapur had invested highest compared to other CHS providers. Irrespective of the CHS providers and region, the investment made on tillage equipments was the highest. However, the government subsidized CHSCs own maximum number farm machinery inventory compared to other CHS providers irrespective of the region. The feasible factors highlighted that all the government subsidized CHS providers are economically feasible and NGO operated CHSC in Tumkur is capable of generating higher returns. In addition, it was found that the farmers have realized 10 to 20 per cent higher returns from using custom hire services from government subsidized CHSC than other CHS providers. The non-availability of skilled labour, spare parts of farm machinery and repair and maintenance and local workshops were the major constraints faced by the CHS providers. While non-availability of machinery services in time, quality of farm operation and payment options were the major constraints faced by the farmers.