Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-643145, Uttaranchal.
A survey was conducted to study the utilization of combine harvester in Sitarganj and Rudrapur blocks of district Udham Singh Nagar, Uttaranchal. In these blocks, 16 villages were randomly selected. A sample size of 60 farmers was randomly chosen and categorized as non-users of combine, users of combine and owners of combine. The land holding of these farmers ranged between 2 ha to 60 ha. Most of the combines used in the area were of local make viz. Heera, Mlkit, standard and Vishal, manufactured in Punjab. The primary data was collected from the sample farmers through personal interview/discussion on preprepared questionnaire. From the survey it was inferred that 85% of the farmers in these blocks use combine harvester for harvesting of wheat and paddy. Only 15% of the farmers were not in favour of using combine because of requirement of bhusa and poor gain quality. The burning of straw/stubbles left over in the field was the common straw management practice followed by 94% of the farmers in this area. Major problems experienced by the farmers in using the combine were loss of straw and more grain breakage particularly in paddy, which fetched lower market price in comparison to manually harvested crop and mechanical threshing. Combines in the area covered about 180–225 ha in a season.
