MAGHINE BANK

under crop Residue Management in UP

Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

Indicn agriculture is undergoing a gradual shift fromn dependence on human

power and animal power to mechanical power because of the increasing cost of

upkeep of animals and the growing scarcity of human labour. Further, the use of

mechanical power has a direct bearing on the productivity of crops apart from

reducing drudgery and facilitating the timeliness of agricultural operations. Thus,

there is a strong need for taking farm mechanization. However, the farm power dis-

tribution is quite uneven across the States, wherein the highest use of mechanical

power is in the order of 3.5 kW/ha in Punjab and less than 1kUJ/ha in States like Bihar,

Orissa Jharkhand etc. Mechanical power is largely consumed in big land holdings

and is still beyond the reach of small/marginal holding which constitutes around

80% of the total land holdings. This is because the small/marginal farmers, by their

economic condition, are unable to own farm machinery on their own or through

institutional credit. Therefore, to make farm machinery available within the reach of

small/marginal holdings, collective ownership or a Custom Hiring Centre needs to be

promoted in a big way. This model scheme is prepared to demonstrate to the banks

that financing for the establishment of a machinery bank is a financially viable unit.

1.1 Objectives:

- To make available various farm machinery and equipment to small and marginal
farmers

- To offset the adverse economies of scale due to the high cost of individual owner-
ship

- To improve mechanization in places with low farm power availability

- To provide hiring services for various agricultural machinery and implements ap-
plied for different operations.

- To expand mechanized activities during cropping seasons in large areas, especial-

ly in small and marginal holdings.

- To provide hiring services for various high-value crop-specific machines applied for
different operations.

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Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

The main objective of this for them to cultivate. Anyone can open

scheme is to provide machinery for this bank. This bank will also become
farming on rent to the farmers. Farmers a very good source of income. Through

will be provided farming equipment this scheme, the economic condition of

on rent by opening a farm machinery the farmers will improve and time will

bank through the Farm Machinery also be saved.

Bank scheme. So that it will be easier

1.2 Potential for Machinery Bank:

The farm power availability for for taking the farm machinery within

small/marginal land holdings is the the reach of small/marginal farmers,

lowest. As the small/marginal holdings institutional credit needs to be made

constitute 80% of total land holdings, available for machine banks.
the potential for a machinery bank Mechanisation in Bihar has
that will cater to the farm machin- contributed significantly to the devel-

ery requirement of such a vast area is opment of the agricultural economy

quite huge. The government of India, of the state. But farmers with meagre

in recognition of this potential, has resources at their command can’t go

envisaged an increase of farm power further for mechanization due to the

availability from the present level (0.93 high prices of machines such as trac-

kW/ha) to 2 kW/ha during the 12th plan tors, combine harvesters, machinery

period. The Sub Mission on Agricultural for management of crop residues, etc.

Machinery (SMAM) is one such ini- To overcome such problems and at the

tiative. The subsidy schemes are also same time to get the advantages of

being formulated to encourage entre- mechanisation by the needy farmers

preneurs and agriculture graduates for the costly machines and imple-

to set up machinery banks. Therefore, ments, some cooperative societies have

keeping in view the emphasis on agri- initiated steps toward providing farm

cultural farm machinery and the need machinery services on rental as well as

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Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

on a custom hiring basis to the farmers. Machinery bank neither needs initial invest-
ment nor repair and maintenance cost from farmers. It is well well-established fact
that farm mechanisation helps in enhancing the production and productivity of agri-
culture.Costly andrarely used (required only for one or two farm operations) machines
hinder farm mechanisation. Therefore, farmers, particularly small and marginal
farmers cannot afford to purchase due to either higher cost or limited use of a par-

ticular machine. In such a situation, rural youth or farmers can establish a machine

bank and provide the same to the farmers on a rental basis. A machine bankis a unit

consisting of a

set of machines,

implements

and equipment

meant for cus-

tom hiring.

Fig 1: Operation of Happy Seeder in the field

1.3 Location of the Machinery Bank:

Ideally, the machinery bank shall have to be located in a place where by and

large small land holdings are located within a radius of 5 to 7 kms. This will reduce

the transport cost and time of transport of agricultural machinery. In other terms,

one bank is expected to cater to 4/5 villages and therefore a commonplace equidis-

tant from the villages catered to is advisable.

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Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

1.3.1 Advantages of Machine Bank:

Provides access to small and marginal farmers to costly farm machinery,

Facilitates timeliness in farm operations and efficient use of inputs, Promotes adop-

tion of climate resilient practices

and technologies by farmers because of availability

of appropriate machines at reasonable hiring charges, Reduces drudgery Promotes

anincrease in cropping intensity wherever feasible, Facilitates crop residue recycling

and prevents burning of residues. Reduction in the cost of cultivation, Provides work

opportunities to skilled labour and small artisans.

1.4 Farm Machinery Bank Unit:

A Farm Machinery bank is a unit comprising a set of farm machinery, imple-

ments and equipment meant for custom hiring by farmers. Though certain imple-

ments and equipment are crop-specific, traction units like tractors, powser tillers etc.,

and self-propelled machinery like combine harvesters, balers etc., are used in com-

mon. Therefore, an ideal model envisaged in this project comprises farm machinery

that is commonly used for tillage operations for all crops, multi-crop equipment and

a minimum of crop-specific machinery.

1.5 Scenario of Residue Burning and Role of Machine:

Paddy-wheat cropping system straw management. Paddy residue

is predominant in UP and has a lion’s has emerged as a major challenge to

sharein the rice and wheat contribution contemporary agriculture in Bihar as

to the national of food grain. Although disposalor utilization of the leftover res-

mechanized harvesting and threshing idue in the short window of 10-20 days

of paddy using combine harvesters for timely planting of ensuing crops is a

has reduced the cost of cultivation but difficult task. Therefore, farmers gener-

also created the problem of paddy ally resort to burning this paddy straw

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Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

in the field itself. The amount of crop as a layer of mulch while sowing the

residues generated in India during succeeding crop with a happy seeder

2009 was 501.76 million tons and the or zero-till drill or mixing/incorporat-

surplus amount was 140.84 million ing residue in the soil using reversible

tons. According to an estimate, 92.81 plough, disc plough or rotavator. The

million tons of crop residue were burnt type of management and machines

in India in 2010 and Punjab, Haryana to be used can be chosen based on the
and Uttar Pradesh are leading states in requirements of the succeeding crop.

crop residue burning (54.52%). Burning Looking into the seriousness of the issue

of these residues, to clear the field for of residue burning in Utter Pradesh, as

the next crop, leads to atmospheric pol- well as Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)

lution, nutritional losses, deterioration of Bihar under the Department of

of soil health, etc, Incorporation of this Agriculture and Ministry of Agriculture

straw can augment the fertility of soil; has started pioneering work by pro-

thereby reducing the need for chem- moting farm machinery for in-situ

ical fertilizers worth Rs. 1500-2000/ha. residue management and driving the

It seems to be a better approach as air attention of all the stakeholders to the

pollution is prevented and soil fertility problem of residue burning on small

is improved with the existing residue scale. Machinery for in-situ residue

in the field. Therefore, it is desirable to management has been the pre-requi-

shun the residue burning for the benefit site as most of the farmers particularly

of farmers as well as the general public small and marginal farmers did not

at large. have it for the same.

Among the scientific crop res-

idue management options, ex-situ

managementofpaddy residueis essen-

tially the mining of essential nutrients

from the field and should be avoided.

However, in-situ management involves

either retaining the residue on the field

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Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

1.6 Establishment of Machine Banks in KVKs:

Machine banks are established in each KVK of Bihar for organizing capacity

development, demonstrations,
and exhibitions as wellas providing services to needy

farmers. There are available machinery banks like Combine harvesters with SMS,

Happy Seeders, Straw reaper, Strip Seeder, Super Seeder, Cutting mixing machines,

Reversible Mould Board Ploughs, Shrub Master/ Cutter cum Spreader, Mulcher/

Choppers, Zero Till Drills and rotavators available in different KVKs.

1.7 Scope for Income and Employment Generation:

Machine bank is an innovative solution for farm mechanisation and has

tremendous potential for increasing the income of farmers as well as generating

employment in rural areas. Rural youth can be attracted to establishing machine

banks in their respective villages under the CRA Programme.

Tablel: Farm Machinery forin-situ Paddy Residue Management:

Name Source of Capacity/ Purpose
of Power output
Combin Self- 70-80 Combines the three major harvesting
& propelied, acrefday operations; reaping, threshing, and
L= PrOoperated winnowing into a single process. Feeding,

Happy Tractor (50 | 50-6.25 Wheat can be directly drilled into

seede HP or above) | acre/day combined harvested paddy fields without
r any burning or removal of residue. The
loose straw should be uniformly spread in
the field before sowing either manuallyor
harvesting paddy with combined
Straw Tractor (50 8-10 acre/ It improves the efficiency (20%) of Happy
cuttercum | HPorabove) | Day Seeder by chopping and spreading
sproader straw after combined harvesting of
Paddy Tractor (50 6-7acre/day | The paddy straw chopper/mulcher
straw HP or above) chops the straw into small pieces and

Roversible | Tractor (50 §8-725 Used to open up un-ploughed land. Field

MBplough | HPorabove) | acre/day capacity will depend upon the size of the

Zero-til- Tractor (40 7-10 acre/ Wheat can be sown directly in the clean
orill HP or above) | Day paddy field without any tillage operation &
can be used in Basmati harvested fields or
paddy fields from which straws have been

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Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

N ay!
i

1. Harvester 2. Happy Seeder

3. Cutting Mixing Sowing Machine 4. Happy Seeder

(€mMss)

5. Straw Reaper 6. Cutter-cum-Spreader

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Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

7. Reversible M. B. Plough 8. Super Seeder Machine

9. Reversible M. B. Plough 10. Rotavator

Fig 2: Machinery Banks

1.8 How farmers can benefit from Farm Machinery:

Modernization in the agriculture sector is increasing day by day; the need

for new machines is being realized. Whether it is weeding or spraying and trans-

planting. But it is not easy for everyone to buy such expensive equipment. In such

a situation, the central government itself has become a gathering. The Ministry of

Agriculture has launched a scheme to build and take advantage of custom hiring

centres. The officials associated with this scheme hope that when they get a rental

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Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

instead of buying a machine, then the cost will be reduced, their income willincrease

and there will be no problem of debt. On the other hand, the government is providing

financial support to the farmer who is doing its business.

1.9 Financial Assistance for Promotion of Mechanized

Operations/hectare carried out through Machine Bank:

Item Maximum permissible Pattern of Norms for

cost Agency Intervention

Hiring Up to a maximum of 2 ha . ;
» Selection of villages from
Charges to area as per following norms o )
3 districts with low
farmer (i) For tractor/power P
> productivity in Cereals,
members of operated operations - Rs. .
Pulses and oilseeds
Farm 2000/ha per farmer per year | 50% of the cost | ) ) -
B . . ) identified in other Missions
Machinery (i) For animal drawn of operation/ha. k
. - for demonstrations One-
Banks setup | mechanized operations- Rs. ) . )
time hiring assistance to
under SMAM 1000/ha per farmer per year
# farmer members of the
(iii)For manual operations — .
farm machinery banks set
Rs. 750/ha per farmer per
up under SMAM
year
Field Demo by | Minimum 120 ha/season per Demonstration charges to
Machine Bank | machine bank custom hiring centres set
Rs. 2000/ha up under SMAM. These
demonstrations will be
limited to 120 ha/village

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Machine Bank under Crop Residue Management in UP Kumar and Singh

About the author

Devesh Kumar* and Arvind Kumar Singh Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sant Kabir Nagar,

Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture & Technology,

Kumarganj, Ayodhya (U.P.)-224 229

*Corresponding author e-mail: deveshkl208@gmail.com

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