Presented in ACIAR-IFPRI two days Regional Dialogue on Machine Reforms’ for Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture in South Asia on July 21-22, 2017 in New Delhi, India

1. Machines in Agriculture in
Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP)
PK Joshi, Avinash Kishore and Divya Pandey
IFPRI

2. Pre-view
• Large number of farmers & high employment pressure on land
• Relatively lower, but rising agricultural wages
• Widespread use of tractors, power-tillers, threshers and paddy de-huskers
• But very limited use of CA equipment
• Machine rental markets are very important in EGP
• Only <2% farmers own tractors or PTs
• Sub-marginal farmers depend entirely on rental markets
• Very few studies of machine rental markets, except pump-sets
• Large inter-regional differences in patterns of mechanization
• Bangladesh: small Chinese power-tillers dominate
• Bihar and Nepal Teraii: Mostly large tractors
• West Bengal: Both tractors and power-tillers

3. Our Study
• Supported by ACIAR-SRFSI
• 8 districts : 2 each in north Bihar, Nepal teraii; West Bengal and Bangladesh
• 10,284 households (6006 farming households) in 8 districts
• Detailed survey of 1464 households
• Objectives of the study:
• Map adoption, use and awareness of implements for conservation agriculture
• Understand ownership and rental arrangements for tractors and power-tillers
• Comparison across 4 political units

4. Sampling
Countries No. of HHs
in
houselisting
Landed
HHs
HHs
shortlisted
for
detailed
survey
Average
holding
Size (ha) of
landed HHs
Avg. Land size
(ha) of tractors
or PT owners
Bangladesh 3113 1457 321 0.58 0.87
Bihar 4267 2554 361 0.82 2.23
West Bengal 2500 1591 378 0.41 0.75
Nepal* - - 404 0.93*
Total 9880 5602 1464 0.64 1.36

5. Machine ownership and use (house-listing data)
Machines
Own Rented
Bihar West Bengal Bangladesh Bihar West Bengal Bangladesh
Tractor 92 21 3 2315 (96.2%) 1498 (99%) 246 (99%)
Power tiller 12 32 120 0 657 (95%) 1769 (94%)
Wheat Thresher 43 17 0 2190 (98%) 399 (96%) 0
Bullock drawn plough 284 0 0 50 (15%) 0 0
Rotavator 8 0 0 641 (99%) 0 6
Straw reaper 0 0 0 0 0 0
Seed drill 0 1 0 1 0 0
Combine 0 0 0 0 30 (100%) 0
Laser land leveller 0 0 0 0 0 0
Paddy transplanter 0 0 0 0 0 0

6. Awareness & exposure to CA equipment in our sample
Technology
% of 1464 who have
heard of it
% of 1464 who have seen
it working
Rotovator 23.2 16.2
Combined Harvester 20.1 2.5
ZT 15.0 1.8
Sprinkler 5.8 0.5
Rice transplanter 2.1 0.1
Laser land leveller 2.0 0.7
Drum Seeder 1.2 0.1
Drip 0.3 0.3

7. Who owns machines?
Countries Average
holding
Size (ha) of
landed HHs
Avg. Land size
(ha) of tractors
or PT owners
Bangladesh 0.58 0.87
Bihar 0.82 2.23
West Bengal 0.41 0.75
Nepal* 0.93*
Total 0.64 1.36
Machine Average Landholding
of Owners (ha)
Tractor 2.03
Power-tillers 0.88
Thresher 1.68
Plough 0.71

8. Change in ownership over time: tractors (n = 141)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Growth of tractors in study regions (2005-15)
Madhubani -4WT Purnea -4WT Coochbehar -4WT Malda -4WT
Rajshahi -4WT Rangpur -4WT Dhanusha- 4WT Sunsari -4WT
Rapid increase in # tractors in
Bihar and Nepal Teraii; slow
tractorization in West Bengal

9. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Growth of Power tillers in study regions (2005-15)
Madhubani -2WT Purnea -2WT Coochbehar -2WT Malda -2WT
Rajshahi -2WT Rangpur -2WT Dhanusha- 2WT Sunsari -2WT
Power tillers
dominate
Bangladesh and
Cooch Behar in
West Bengal, but
are less popular in
Bihar and Nepal
More rapid growth in # PTs in
Bangladesh than West Bengal in
the last 10 Years
Change in ownership over time: power-tillers (n = 90)

10. Tractors Avg.
capacity
(HP)
Avg. cost
(Million
INR)
Percentage of
2nd hand
tractors
Madhubani 34 0.45 18 (28)
Purnea 35 0.46 8(39)
Coochbehar 51 0.68 0 (10)
Malda 42 0.61 25 (8)
Dhanusha 41 0.65 0 (22)
Sunsari 52 0.72 0 (34)
Power-
tillers
Avg.
capacity
(HP)
Avg. cost
(Million
INR)
Percentage of
2nd hand
Power-tillers
Coochbehar 18 0.11 32 (19)
Rajshahi 12 0.064 46 (41)
Rangpur 12 0.072 26 (27)
Sunsari 13 0.091 25 (4)
Comparing tractors vs. Power-tillers: Capacity, costs, purchase and use
Non-
agricultural
Use
% Non-agri
Use
Hours/Year Self Driven If rented out Radius
served
Tractors 80% 46% 175-280 62% 94% 3-8 km
Power-tillers 5% NA 150-279 85% 63% <3 km

11. Comparing tractors and power-tillers: Rental rates
Districts
Average Rental Rate of
Tractors (Rs/ha)
Average Rental Rate of
Power Tillers (Rs/ha)
2015
% Increase
over 2010
2015
% Increase
over 2010
Madhubani 2792 34 - -
Purnea 2417 45 - -
Coochbehar 1903 20 2092 18
Malda 1829 25 1945 31
Rajshahi 1889 18 1657 31
Rangpur 2022 27 1240 25
Dhanusha 3200 19
• Higher rental rates in Bihar and growing more rapidly
• Significantly lower rental rates in Bangladesh in spite of higher diesel prices

12. Why mechanize: Higher cropping intensity Machine density has
increased, but the GCA
has hovered around 8
million ha (CI = 1.42) in
Bihar.
In comparison, CI >1.8
in West Bengal and
Bangladesh
Mechanization without
intensification in Bihar while
intensification even without
mechanization in West Bengal
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Growth of tractors in study regions (2005-15)
Madhubani -4WT Purnea -4WT Coochbehar -4WT Malda -4WT
Rajshahi -4WT Rangpur -4WT Dhanusha- 4WT Sunsari -4WT

13. Why mechanize : Yield enhancement
Andhra Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Chhatisgarh
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jharkhand
Karnataka
Kerala
Maharashtra
Orissa
Punjab
Tamil Nadu
Uttar Pradesh
Uttarakhand
West Bengal
102030405060
0 2000 4000 6000 8000
totalmachinecost

14. Why Mechanize : Induced innovation
• Scarcity of labor and rising wage
rates
• 2.5 agricultural laborers/ha land (1.59
males)
• 3.93 (cultivators + ag. Laborers)/ha land
(2.76 males)
• Rice-wheat cropping system is not
labor intensive
• ~1200 hours/ha or 150-200 person-
days/ha  At most 60-70 days of
employment/year
• Bihar has the highest labor
availability among all states
• Evident in wage comparisons
171818192020
23242425
29
33353536
48
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Jharkhand
Bihar
UP
Chhatisgarh
Orissa
Maharashtra
Karnataka
WBengal
Assam
Uttarakhand
HP
Haryana
Punjab
TN
AP
Kerala
Wage Rates (Rs./hour) across States

15. From land rent to machine rents
• Most farmers cannot and should not buy big machines
• Machine rental markets are critical to mechanization of ag. Operations
• >95% of all farmers in EGP rent at least 1 machine from another farmer
• But machine rental markets appear to be inefficient
• Under-utilization of scarce capital
• Transfer of rents from sub-marginal farmers to the large farmers who also own
machines
• Reinforcing existing inequalities in land ownership

16. Merely subsidizing new units is not enough
• Existing subsidy and credit policies are not helping : benefit only those with
collateral
• Opportunity: create machine service providers in agriculture
• Use technology to create competitive rental markets in ag. Equipment
• Bangladesh has much less subsidy on power-tillers than Bihar
• But Bangladeshi farmers get them significantly cheaper: Smaller Chinese power tillers
• Lower rents, in spite of higher diesel prices and lower fuel use efficiency
• More vibrant rental markets: serves larger area of a larger number of farmers over longer distances; each
renter has more options
• More frequent use, even by sub-marginal farmers
• What should we learn from Bangladesh in mechanizing its agriculture?

17. Thanks!