Author(s):

C Ramana and P Lavanya Kumari

Abstract: A study was conducted to know the level of usage and perception of the farmers on farm machinery in the Southern Zone which consists of three districts viz., Chittoor, Kadapa and Nellore, of Andhra Pradesh. A total sample of 300 farmers in three districts, 100 from each district, is considered randomly for the study. Most of the farmers are practicing multiple cropping systems to sustain themselves with good profits. Among them 30 per cent are growing Groundnut and Paddy as the major crops, nearly 11 per cent cultivate only paddy as a major crop whereas only 10 per cent farmers depend other pulses along with paddy. Majority (66 per cent) of the farmers are cultivating crops under irrigated conditions, only 10 percent of them depend on rainfed whereas 24 percent farmers cultivating under both the conditions. From the analysis it is noticed that majority of the farmers (93 percent) had moderate knowledge on farm machinery, out of them only 6% of the farmers are doing fully mechanized cultivation and nearly 94% of them are using farm machinery partially in some stages of cultivation. Regarding availability of the farm machinery, it is observed that utmost 10 percent of farmers owned various farm machinery and majority of them purchased on subsidy. Further, statistically a significant impact of age, experience in cultivation, experience in cultivation using farm machinery, education, annual income, labour resources, and awareness on farm machinery is noticed on the perception of the farmers on farm mechanization whereas cultivable land size has not influenced their perception. These findings help the Agricultural scientists and Government officials in taking decisions to enhance the awareness and accustomedness of the farmers towards farm mechanization.

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