ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF COMBINE HARVESTER IN PADDY CULTIVATION

B. VIKRAM¹, CH. SRILATHA²*, P. RAJAIAH³, B. YASWANTH REDDY⁴, P. SANDEEP REDDY⁵, M. SAGAR⁶, G. SHRAVANI⁷, A. SRIDHAR^8
1College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, 502329, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
²College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, 502329, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
³College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, 502329, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
⁴College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, 502329, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
⁵College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, 502329, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
⁶College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, 502329, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
⁷College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, 502329, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
⁸College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, 502329, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
* Corresponding Author : chslatha@gmail.com

Received : 30-10-2018     Accepted : 13-01-2020     Published : 15-01-2020
Volume : 12     Issue : 1       Pages : 9402 - 9405
Int J Agr Sci 12.1 (2020):9402-9405

Keywords : Paddy, Combine harvester, Costs, Returns, Economic feasibility
Academic Editor : Dr Amit Kumar
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Authors are thankful to College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, 502329, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
Author Contribution : All authors equally contributed

The present study was undertaken mainly to study the cost and returns of paddy under conventional and combine harvester methods and economic viability of Paddy combine harvester. Medak district in Telangana state was purposively chosen for the study as it has considerable area under paddy and more than 85 percent of paddy area is harvested with combine harvester. Three major mandals were selected purposively on the basis of area under paddy cultivation. One village from each selected mandal was chosen for the study. Paddy farmers from each village were randomly selected and made the total sample size to 30. The information pertaining to combine harvester was collected from the 10 combine harvester owners. Tabular analysis and discounted project evaluation techniques were used to study costs, returns of the paddy and economic feasibility of the combine harvester respectively. The problems were also ranked. The total cost expended per acre of paddy stood at Rs. 25850.18 and Rs. 22702.62 with manual and combine harvester methods of harvesting respectively. The gross and net income per acre were Rs.38770/- and Rs.12919.82/- respectively with Conventional method as against Rs.35770/- and Rs.13067.38/- respectively using Combine harvester method. The returns per rupee invested were higher in Combine harvester (1.58) compared to Conventional method (1.50). The net gain due to mechanized harvesting using combine harvester was Rs.147.56/- per acre. The net present worth was high and ranged from Rs.9, 69,426/- at 12 percent to Rs.8, 39,709.7 at 24 percent discount rates. The benefit cost ratio was more than unity at all the discount rates. The internal rate of return was found to be 23.79% which was much higher than the bank rate of interest (12 percent) on long term loans. The major problems encountered in farm mechanization in paddy cultivation were high investment on farm machineries followed by non-suitability for small sized holders. Fodder loss was another major problem due to use of combine harvester for harvesting. Custom hiring was the problem due to high hiring charges of farm equipment’s or machineries.

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