1 College of Agril. Engg. & Tech., OUAT, Bhubaneswar - 3.
2 Division of Agricultural Engineering, IARI, New Delhi - 110 012.
3 Division of Sample Survey, IASRI, New Delhi - 110 012.
A study was undertaken to as certain the availability and utilization pattern of farm power and machinery in the Kamal district of Haryana state. Stratified sample farmers were selected using two-stage random sampling technique from six blocks of the district. Two villages from each block and nine tractor-owning farmers from each village were selected randomly. A total of 108 farmers were interviewed to collect information on a pre-tested questionnaire. The survey revealed that tractors below 26.12 kW (35 hp), electric motors below 3.73 kW(5 hp) and diesel engines above 5.6 kW (7.5 hp) were popular. Average annual use of tractors was only 472 hours, which was less than expected. Tractors were used 58%. of the time in own work and 42% in custom work. Maximum use of tractor (41.91%) was in seedbed preparation followed by transportation (26.14%) and threshing (20.25%). Average power (mobile and stationary) available was 4.27kW/ha. Power availability was highest on large farms and lowest on small farms, where as power availability per unit area was higheston small farms (12.29 kW/ha) and lowest on large farms (3.34 kW/ha). Tractor-drawn disc harrow and cultivator were the most popular implements and owned by 95.37% and 88% farmers in the sample, respectively, where as seed-cum-fertiliser drill was the least popular implement. Mould board and disc ploughs were not used.
