Influence of Information sources on adoption of combine paddy harvester in Batticaloa district

Abstract

The main objectives of this study were to find out the adoption rate of mechanical paddy harvester in the Batticaloa district, and to assess the influence of information sources in the adoption of combine harvester in the district and find out the relationship between the adoption of harvester and the utilization of information sources and the socio economic characteristic of farmers in the district. The primary data for this study were gathered through survey by using pre-tested questionnaire and the secondary data were collected from relevant department’s such as Department of Agriculture, Agrarian Service Centre, Department of Planning, Kachchery Batticaloa and other organizations. The study was carried out among hundred paddy farmers in the Batticaloa district, the sample farmers were selected according to the farmers’ population and the extent of cultivation. According to the survey it was found that nine percent of farmers were adopters and 91 percent of them were Non-Adopters. The adoption rate was estimated by considering the extent of paddy land harvested by combine harvester out of total land cultivated. It was calculated for each adopter and for the entire farmers surveyed by this way the overall adoption rate was found. The adopters were classified into low, medium and high adopters according to the extent harvested by harvester. The influence of information sources in adoption of combine harvester was found by using five point Likert scale method with frequency of usage of information sources. The influence of information sources in adoption was found to be less and there was no considerable influence of information sources in adoption of combine harvester and it was found that there is a significant correlation between income level and the adoption of combine harvester. The information source mostly used by farmers to get to know about combine harvester was the progressive farmers followed by the neighbours/relatives. Normally the farmers get new ideas/information from progressive farmers, followed from radio and relatives/neighbours. It was found that there are pros and cons in using combine harvester for harvesting. It was found that most of the farmers had positive attitude about cost effectiveness of the combine harvester and they preferred to use the combine harvester instead of sickle harvesting, but the problem was high investment cost required, so by providing incentives to farmers adoption of combine harvester can be increased.