Adoption and spread of custom service provisioning of mechanical transplanting in Odisha: A case study

Mechanical transplanting in Odisha has been in vogue since early 2000 with government patronage. However, expansion of area under mechanical transplanting is very much restricted. The current study analyses the government initiatives in promoting and the economics of scope of enhancing mechanical transplanting in the state. Custom service providers are operating at a smaller scale, operating 1–2 machines with the area coverage being mostly in the range of 20–60 acres. The economics of rice transplanter use is generally favourable for smaller types of machinery. Investment in these machines can be recovered, even without subsidy, in less than two years if farmers can expand the area to 100ac per year. Service providers can recover about 77% of their net payment within one year after receiving the subsidy. Thus, the subsidy plays an important role in encouraging more farmers to become service providers.