Challenges and Prospects of Farm Mechanization in Pakistan: A Case Study of Rural Farmers in District Peshawar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

A griculture is a fundamental part of Pakistan's economy contributing 18.5% to gross domestic product (GDP), providing employment opportunities to almost 38.5% population and providing raw material for different agro based industries (GoP, 2019). It is therefore, considered as a backbone in overall national development, food security and poverty reduction. Majority of the population i.e. 67% belongs to rural areas, and their livelihood directly or indirectly depends on agriculture (Sanaullah and Abstract | The current study assessed the mechanization challenges and scenario prevailing in rural area of district Peshawar of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. This study employed a multi stage sampling technique to gather data on the socio-economic features of the farmers and available machinery. A total of 240 rural farmers were randomly selected from two local union councils of provincial government Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Peshawar. The accumulated data were analysed using mean and standard deviation with an acceptance mean value of ≥3.00 and estimating logit model. Socio demographic features revealed that majority (52%) were in middle age group of 41-50 years, 64% were literate, while 68% respondents had farming as their income source and land owners were 64% with small landholding (46%). The study exposed that illiteracy of the respondents (4.10), et al system (3.98), lack of trained machinery operators (4.27), access of roads to the farm (4.45), adequate capital (4.00) and costly inputs (3.80) were some of the challenges plaguing the use of agricultural mechanization in the rural area. It was established that agricultural mechanization has significant role in boosting farm productivity, improving farmers' livelihood, ensuring economic growth, availability of off-seasonal farm produce, increasing income generating opportunities and reduction in time of operation among others. Logistic Regression indicated a highly significant (p<0.01) positive effect of key determinants including; income source (0.008), farm size (0.001), farming experience (0.004), extension visits (0.009), access to credit (0.002) and access to agricultural machines (0.006) on farm mechanization adoption. The study emphasized that government may make agricultural mechanization and farming resources available and reachable to the farmers in order to persuade farmers in using them to maximize production, arrange awareness trainings and subsidize costly agricultural inputs.

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“…Conventional tillage practice and hand broadcasting of seed and fertilizer is a laborious and time-consuming operation (Tabriz et al, 2021). The application of machines to agricultural production has been one of the outstanding developments in recent period of times (Banerjee and Punekar, 2020;Sanaullah et al, 2021) which covers around 80% of the agricultural activities (Valin et al, 2013). Two wheeled tractors operated in CA based tillage technology have been developed and promotional activities are being conducted in the farmer's field of Bangladesh.…”

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“…The increase in farmers' income is also driven by intensification activities due to the use of agricultural mechanization so that there is an improvement in the quality of agricultural products produced [18]. Thus, agricultural mechanization, in general, has a direct or indirect effect on improving the welfare of farmers, especially farmers who have small lands [18,20,21]…”

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