Perception vs. Performance: Correlation Assessment of Custom Hiring Centres in the Era of Climate-Smart Agriculture

Abstract

Farm mechanization is crucial for boosting land productivity by ensuring timely and precise agricultural operations, reducing crop loss, increasing labor efficiency, and enhancing the quality of farm work. However, small and marginal farmers often cannot afford the necessary equipment due to the limited financial resources, high cost of equipment, lack of access to credit, low economies of scale, high interest rates and unfavorable loan terms, lack of awareness and knowledge. Agriculture, vulnerable to and a contributor of climate change must adapt to changing conditions without worsening environmental issues. This has shifted agricultural development priorities. Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) are vital in this context, as they provide affordable machinery rentals, making Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies more accessible. CHCs are crucial in supporting farmers with CSA tools and financial resources. Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) provide a solution by offering affordable access to farm implements, addressing labor shortages, ensuring efficient operations, and increasing yields by sharing the cost of implements through ‘innovative arrangements’. An ex-post facto research design was used in present investigation. The study was confined to Vijayapur district of Karnataka. Five talukas having seven CHSCs within the entire Vijayapur district were chosen for this research study with 140 respondents. The study is all about the relationship between the efficiency of CHSC & farmers’ profile of Vijayapur district, Karnataka. The study involved fifteen independent variables and one dependent variable. Data were gathered using structured interview schedules through personal interviews and analyzed using correlation coefficients. The result indicated the correlation between the efficiency of CHSCs vs age (r=0.028), gender (r=0.059), education (r=0.188), farm size (r=-0.163), farming experience (r=0.005), social participation (r=0.208), attitude (r=0.381), annual income (r=0.223), management orientation (r=0.236), accessibility (r=0.241), innovativeness (r=0.265), extension contact (r=0.295), mass media exposure (r=0.249), economic orientation (r=0.278), achievement motivation (r=0.259).  The result obtained might help to explore and widen the scope of farm mechanization and can help unleash the complete potential of custom hiring services, benefiting farmers and the agricultural domain alike. A synoptic study has been conducted regarding the farmers' notion and apprehension about the Custom Hiring Service Centers in advancing climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in Vijayapura district. Overall it was noted that Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices can effectively help the farmers especially the small farmers to overcome climate vulnerabilities. It also suggested that increasing the number of custom hiring centres and service providers can facilitate more inclusivity through competition.