A Feasibility Study of Custom Hiring Service of Farm Machinery at Kanker District of Chhattishgarh

The study has evaluated the contribution of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) towards improving the economic viability of farming in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh. Model of custom hiring is very useful for providing the services of farm machinery for agricultural operation such as seedbed preparation, sowing, harvesting and threshing within a short period. Study is conducted to know the economic feasibility of the custom hiring services of farm machinery in all blocks of the Kanker district. Survey was carried out through gathering the information of 30 custom hiring centres owners in addition to beneficiaries (138 cultivators) of this custom hiring centers. It was found that 38.4 % small cultivators avail the services of custom hiring centre followed by 31.88 % marginal, 15.94 % large, and 13.76 medium cultivators respectively. It was also noted that profit per investment of tractor among all the farm machinery was highest but other machinery such as rotavator, plough, cultivator, reaper, seed drill and thresher was also profitable to the farmers. Disc plough has negative value of profit per investment which indicates that these implement cause loss on the initial investment. The return on investment from machinery does not depend on its initial cost mainly but it depends upon the annual usage it. The success of the CHC in the district will help in reducing debt-burden of the farmers by bringing down costs of operations and improving economic viability of farming.