Economic Effect of Custom Hiring Centres on Paddy (Oryza sativa) Cultivation in Haryana, India

To compare the economics and efficiency of resource use in paddy cultivation when using machinery hired from government-sponsored Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) vis-à-vis private farm machinery providers. The study was carried out in the Kurukshetra district of Haryana during the agricultural year 2020-21. Selection of district was done based on the highest percentage change in farm power availability since the beginning of the Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM). The data for the investigation were gathered from 80 paddy farmers (40 hiring farm machinery from the private farm machinery providers and 40 from the CHCs). The farmers who hired the machines from CHCs found 10.52 per cent reduction in the paddy operational costs when compared to the farmers who hired machinery from the private farm machine providers. Furthermore, the net returns of the farmers who hired from the CHCs were approximately 27.06 percent higher. In case of the resource use efficiency, machine labour was discovered to be the most efficiently utilised resource under CHCs. In comparison to the private farm machinery providers, the study found that the CHCs help to improve returns and efficiency of utilisation of the farm machinery as a resource.