Benefits and Constraints of Rice Mechanization in Thamirabarani Command Area of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

The study was aimed to assess the perceived opinion of rice growers on benefits and also the constraints encountered by the rice growers on farm mechanization. A sample of 160 rice growers from eight villages in Thamirabarani command area was selected for the study. The respondents were interviewed personally through a wellpre-tested interview schedule. The study revealed that the Overall Mean Opinion Score was 3.91 which indicated that farm mechanization was beneficial to the rice growers in many aspects. The major benefits of farm mechanization as perceived by the respondents were farm mechanization helped in operating agricultural works quickly (MOS 4.97), performing farm operations in time (MOS 4.86), overcoming labour shortage problem (MOS 4.75), minimizing work burden of labours (MOS 4.61) and improving working condition of farmers (MOS 4.03). Regarding constraints, most of the respondents expressed lack of credit facilities (98.75 per cent), high fuel cost (98.75 per cent), high initial cost (97.50 per cent), low resale value for farm implements machineries (97.50 per cent), high maintenance cost (95.00 per cent), lack of training (94.38 per cent) and lack of skilled labourers for operating improved farm implements and machineries (93.13 per cent) as the constraints in rice mechanization.