2008 Volume 70 Issue 6 Pages 59-68
This paper deals with local socio-economic characteristics including production cost, household income, the characteristics of farming systems and some institutional aspects with specific reference to the development of farm mechanization. The profitability of rice cultivation at the study site has been discussed extensively. It can be pointed out that the net income per ha was too small to make the best use of machine power feasible on a household basis. The hiring of labor from neighboring farmers or requesting contract-hire services has popularly been done in the form of conventional farming practices. After a standstill in the use of draft animals, farmers laid aside farming implements, excluding small farming tools. Although irrigated farming systems were practiced, cultivating and harvesting operations still partly followed the traditional cooperative methods involving human labor. This was likely based on the insufficient availability of mechanized power. The issues related to the institutional aspects of farming also involved the further acceleration of technology dissemination.
