Status of Farm Power Availability in the Selected Villages of Udhampur District (J&K State)

A survey conducted in 40 villages of Udhampur District of Jammu region (J&K State) revealed that the mean farm power availability (kW/ha), draught animal density (ha/pair) and land holding (ha) sizes were 0.57, 1.55 and 1.07, respectively. The availability of human, draught animals and tractors was 1.47/ha, 0.65 pairs/ha and 1.32 per thousand ha of cultivable area, respectively. All the selected villages have farm power availability less than the National average i.e. 1.231 kW/ha. Eighty per cent of the villages have sufficient draught animals. It further revealed that the small (0–2 ha), semi medium (2–4 ha) and medium (4–10 ha) farmers constitute 90.86, 6.67 and 2.47 per cent and cultivates 69.62, 11.67 and 18.71 per cent of total cultivable areas, respectively. The study indicated a dire need of increasing the farm power availability, particularly in hilly rainfed areas for ensuring the timeliness and quality of operations to increase the productivity of land and to bring more area under cultivation.