Agricultural Economics Research Review

Indian farmers are predominantly small and marginal, and this situation is likely to continue in future also. For increasing productivity and keeping rural population in farming, organizing the farmers into groups might be necessary for the use of capital-intensive equipment and technology. As a case in Andhra Pradesh, mechanization of agriculture seems to be the only option for continuation of agriculture and sustaining the productivity. Hence, a study has been conceived to examine feasibility, practicability and anticipated impact of establishment of custom hiring cooperatives in Indian agriculture. Taking into consideration the results of ex-ante assessment and the ex-post evaluation of the interventions in Andhra Pradesh in the form of mechanized SRI units, modus operandi has been briefed for establishing custom hiring cooperatives starting from pilot and its scaling-up to increase the efficiency at farm level and finally, to develop a mutually beneficial interface between industry and agriculture. The various risks such as market, execution, financial and regulatory and the anticipated benefits of the custom hiring centres have been discussed in detail.