AGRIBUSINESS CENTRE

PROJECT REPORT ON CUSTOM HIRING CENTRE FOR PADDY PACKAGE

PROJECT REPORT ON PADDY CHC

INTRODUCTION
The recent structural changes in economic environment, liberalization policy and the signing of general agreement on tariff and trade has laid down new challenges in which, India has to compete in the international trade including agricultural trade. The basic requirement of this competition is to reduce the unit cost of production, and improve quality of agricultural produce so as to meet the international standards. The cost of production can be reduced only if the cost of every single factor contributing towards the total cost is minimized and resource productivity maximized. Also, various decisions regarding long term investments such as land, building and farm machines are taken with utmost care. Therefore, the agricultural strategies need to be based on the time-tested principles of business management and entrepreneurship so that agriculture can be made a profitable venture. Agricultural mechanization helps in increasing production, productivity and profitability in agriculture by achieving timeliness in farm operations, bringing precision in metering and placement of inputs, reducing available input losses, increasing utilization efficiency of costly inputs (seed, chemical, fertilizer, irrigation, water etc.), reducing unit cost of produce, enhancing profitability and competitiveness in the cost of operation. It also helps in the conservation of the produce and byproducts from qualitative and quantitative damages; enables value addition and establishment of agro processing enterprises for additional income and employment generation from farm produce. It is one of the important inputs to usher in all round development in the rural India. Importance of farm mechanization The efficiency of mechanization can be judged from the fact that modern plough is about 200 to 300 % efficient than indigenous plough, efficient machinery helps in increasing productivity by about 30% besides, enabling the farmers to raise a second crop or multi crop making the Indian agriculture attractive and a way of life by becoming commercial instead of subsistence. There is a need to double the food production by 2020. This will call for raising more crops in a year thus limiting the turn around time. Increased production will require more use of agricultural inputs and protection of crops from biotic and abiotic stresses. This will call for greater

engineering inputs which will require development and introduction of high capacity, precision, reliable and energy efficient equipment. Earlier, it was considered that mechanization creates unemployment. The myth has been broken and it has been observed that, agricultural mechanization besides increasing production and productivity, also generates income and employment opportunities. Several studies conducted in different parts of India have shown that mechanization has helped in increasing production, productivity, generation of income and employment. Punjab, a highly mechanized state, employs 7.0 lakh labourers from adjoining states, out of which 3.5 lakh are employed on a regular basis and remaining during the main cropping season. One of the major constraints of increasing agricultural production and productivity is the inadequacy of farm power and machinery with the farmers. The average farm power availability needs to be increased from the current 1.15 kW/ha to at least 2 kW/ha to assure timeliness and quality in field operations, undertake heavy field operations like sub soiling, chiseling, deep ploughing, summer ploughing, handling agricultural produce and byproducts efficiently, process them for value addition, income and employment generation. All these works in agricultural operations is possible to be attended only when adequate agricultural mechanization infrastructure is created. Diversification of Agriculture and custom Hiring: Diversification is the new mantra for sustainable agricultural development especially in paddy belt. Diversification means diverting a large area under paddy to other crops. Machinery needed for sowing, planting, transplanting, plant protection, harvesting and product recovery is highly crop specific. Thus, diversification would require use of a vast variety ofadditional equipment for these operations on limited area in the initial stages, making it highly uneconomical on ownership basis. However, custom hiring through private entrepreneurs or co-operatives will help to increase annual use of these equipment thereby making them economical. Thus, custom hiring of specialized farm equipment for replacement crops can greatly facilitate diversification of production agriculture. Diversification of agriculture, need for and introduction of new machines and the trend among the farmers to use increasingly larger tractors will vastly expand the scope for custom hiring of farm equipment because in future multi farm use will be the only way to keep the operating cost of farm equipment at a reasonable level.

Agribusiness Centre for Farm Machinery The importance of Custom Hiring Centres has been recognized and Govt. of India has given emphasis to make it a success. Due to reduction in the size of the holdings, it is difficult for the farmers to hold the machinery on their own. As a result, the benefits of mechanization have been enjoyed by only a section of the farmers who have large farm holdings. This problem can be solved by establishing Custom Hiring centres as they will be able to provide the machinery on custom hire basis to these small and medium farmers as and when it is needed. Also a large number of farmers suffer due to lack of service and repair & maintenance facilities for their machinery. There is a need to have such facilities attached to the Custom Hiring centre to bring the service nearer to the farmers. Therefore, ideally an Custom Hiring centre should have all facilities to meet the critical need of the farmers and at the same time become a self reliant and viable proposition. INVESTMENT COMPONENTS OF PADDY CUSTOM HIRING CENTRE The present model scheme includes almost all the basic equipment necessary for crop production right from tillage upto bringing the produce to farmer's house/ market place. Depending upon the agro climatic conditions and demand of individual centres, necessary changes can be incorporated. 1. SELF-PROPELLED RICE TRANSPLANTER Machine transplanting using rice transplanters requires considerably less time and labor than manual transplanting. It increases the approximate area that a person can plant from 700 to 10,000 square metres per day. Mechanical Transplanting of Rice is the process of transplanting specifically raised seedling of rice as a mat (mat type nursery) using a self-propelled mechanical rice transplanter at pre-determined and desired spacing. The mechanical rice transplanter is fitted with a tin based tray like a roof top on which mat type nurseries are placed during the operation. One manual labour transplants approximately 500 square meters in one day whereas with self-propelled rice transplanter one can transplant 5-7 acres in a day. Operation of Self Propelled Mechanical Rice Transplanter The self-propelled mechanical rice transplanter has two detachable parts i.e. front and rear portions. The front portion has diesel engine ranging from 6-14 HP depending on the make, gear box, lever for adjusting hill

spacing, PTO shaft, toothed iron wheel for field operation, steering, drivers seat and two seats for helpers while feeding nursery. The rear portion has floating board, nursery platform, transplanting fingers with screws for adjusting plants/hill, depth setting lever, chains for height adjustment of float board and pedal for float-lifting. For movement from one field/location to another, toothed iron wheel should be replaced with motor bike wheel, and two small wheels should also be fitted below the floating board. The floating board of the transplanter serves as a base and also helps in movement of the machine over excess water in the field. It also serves as a platform for placement of nursery during transplanting operation. On the lower side of the floating board, moulded rectangular plates with round and smooth edges are attached (front to back) 23.5 cm apart for corrugation and smooth movement of machine. Corrugation helps in firm establishment of the transplanted seedlings and also in the faster movement of irrigation water. It also serves the purpose of light planking/ smearing which reduces percolation losses. In general, the self-propelled mechanical rice transplanters have a provision of transplanting 8 rows in single pass with 2 spacing arrangements i.e. 23.5 cm x 12 cm and 23.5 cm x 14 cm that maintains 35 and 30 hills/ m2, respectively. The plant to plant spacing can be adjusted using a lever. Similarly, number of plants per hill can be varied (2-4 seedlings/ hill) by adjusting the position of fingers through screws vis--vis nursery platform. Number of plants per hill can be increased by narrowing the space between fingers and the platform and vice-versa. To and fro movement of nursery platform is guided by the sliding mechanism provided below it. Now. 6 row transplanters are also available having row spacing of 30 cm. In general, in-field fuel efficiency of the self-propelled mechanical rice transplanter is 0.5 l/hr The field efficiency of transplanter is 2.0-2.5 hours per acre. The efficiency under zero till is higher than unpuddled fields and lowest efficiency is under puddle conditions.

Advantages Efficient use of resources by saving on labour (20 man-days ha-1), cost saving (Rs 1500 ha-1), water saving up to 10% Timely transplanting of seedlings of optimal age (15-20 days) Ensures uniform spacing and optimum plant density (30-35 hills/m2 with 2-3 seedlings/hills) Higher productivity (0.5 to 0.7 t ha-1) compared to traditional methods Less transplanting shock, early vigour of seedling, better tillering and uniform maturity of crop that facilitate timely harvest and reduce harvest losses Less incidence of Bakanae disease due to less root injury Promotes double no-till in rice-wheat system and in-turn long-term system sustainability Improving soil health through eliminating puddling Reduces stress, drudgery and health risks of farm labourers Generates employment and alternate sources of income for rural youth through custom services on nursery raising and mechanical transplanting 2. Tractor with Rotovator In the present model, a 45 hp tractor is considered as it is suited to most of the soils in our country and is sufficient enough for carrying out most of the works. Tractor HP can be changed if any special operation is envisaged. Tractors perform a large number of operations, both mobile as well as stationary. Therefore, along with tractor, provision of a rotovator is necessary for wetland preparation and for fine puddling. 3. Automatic seedling machine The automatic paddy seeding machine was the most efficient way to transplant paddy. The automatic paddy seedling machine, consisting of four containers would be filled with mixture of soil, sand and vermi-compost. Another tray consisting of water, paddy seed is placed below the first container in the machine. The paddy seeding machine can fill 600 trays per hour.

4. Nursery trays These trays would be then laid side by side in the field and covered with paddy straw for four days by watering with the rose can. On fourth day, the paddy straw would be removed and the trays watered regularly.80 trays are needed for transplanting one acre. 5. Oil Engine Pump set with accessories Larger number of farmers suffer due to lack of water during the critical periods of plant growth, although water source is available. Availability of a portable pump set with oil engine will be a boon to such farmers to meet the critical needs. 6. Insurance As the agricultural machinery are capital intensive in nature, an insurance provision is made against theft, accident etc.