Custom Hiring Research Articles

Operational performance of agricultural machineries managed by custom hiring (UPJA) in Banyumas district of Central Java province

Agricultural mechanization has important role in increasing capacity, efficiency, and effectiveness of agricultural production process. In order to mechanize Indonesian agricultural system, Ministry of Agriculture has facilitated farmers with many agricultural machineries. Farmer institutions that were designated to utilize and manage those agricultural machineries are Agricultural Machinery Custom Hiring (UPJA). In this research, the operational performances of agricultural machineries managed by the UPJA in Banyumas District were studied. The research were done by desk study, focus group discussion, field survey to 7 UPJA, and measuring the performance of machineries utilized by those UPJA. The results showed that all of UPJA were in beginner status. The common owned and operated agricultural machinery was hand tractor, while four wheel tractor, rice transplanter, power weeder, and rice combine harvester were limited. In general the operational performances of the machines were low. The most factors affected the performance were time required for transportation from garage to the field. In case of hand tractor, the time consumed was 9.46 % of total working hour. For four wheel tractor, rice transplanter, and rice combine harvester, the time required for transportation were 4.19%, 8.16%, and 7.18% respectively. The other factors slightly affected the performance were time losses due to machine preparation and machine trouble. It is suggested to facilitate farm road and towing truck to transport the machines, or develop garage not far from field.

Impact of multi-crop planter business on service providers’ livelihood improvement in some selected areas of Bangladesh

The custom hiring of the Versatile Multi-crop Planter (VMP) is a profitable enterprise for Local Service Providers (LSP) that could improve their household livelihood but the impacts have not yet been assessed in Bangladesh. In this study, we assessed the use pattern and profitability of custom-hiring the VMP, and its impacts on LSPs’ livelihood. A total of 18 LSP were purposively selected from Rajshahi, Thakurgaon, Mymensingh, and Rajbari districts for this study. The study revealed that LSPs effectively utilized VMP and 2-wheel tractor (2WT) for 4-6 months. They earned Tk. 1,42,434 (with incentive on VMP) and Tk. 1,36,134 (without incentive) per year as net income. The average payback periods were 0.72 and 0.98 years with and without incentive, respectively. The annual break-even of a VMP use was 7.79 ha. The LSPs reported a considerable cash (annual income increased by 34.9 %), and capital enhancement, e.g., land holdings (8.3 %), value of livestock (11.2 %), dwelling houses (36.6 %), household furniture (19 %), and modern amenities (45.5 %). The increased incomes from VMP custom hiring were mostly spent on nutritious food, land mortgage-in, and dwellings. The LSPs reported minor challenges such as being unable to use this machine in the wetland condition (61 %), no seating arrangement on the machine during operation in small plots (56 %), long time taken to complete sowing due to narrow planting width per pass (50 %), farmers’ skepticism about the planting machine as it is still new technology (44 %), and lack of skilled drivers (17 %). Financial support and technical assistance should be made available by the government for LSPs and local manufacturers to accelerate greater adoption of the VMP.
 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 44(3): 409-426, September 2019

Performance evaluation and economics of the reaper-cum-binder machine for the mechanized harvesting of wheat crop at Madhubani district of Bihar

India ranks second in terms of wheat production after China, the main reason being lesser productivity, which was 3173 kg/ha for India and 4995 kg/ha for China. Delays in harvesting may associate considerable or even severe losses due to over maturity or any unforeseen natural adversity. Early harvesting could open up opportunities for extra revenues through farming of short duration vegetable crops in the gap between two major crops i.e. paddy and wheat. The reaper cum binder is not that popular for the farmers of Bihar. The study was conducted on this machine for assessment of the performance as well as the economics of the operation, particularly in Bihar where wheat cropping system is still dominant. The reaper-cum-binder saved 11.11 % per hectare of yield to the farmers. So, this machine is preferred well for custom hiring. The field efficiency of the reaper-cum-binder for the wheat crop was obtained as 70.44 %. In harvesting by reaper-cum-binder for the wheat crop, total grain losses were found to be 92.11 kg/ha. The economics of machine over conventional methods of harvesting was calculated and it was found that the benefit-cost ratio for reaper-cum-binder for the wheat crop was 2.08. The breakeven hectares and breakeven hours of reaper-cum-binder for the wheat crop were calculated as 19.75 hectares and 51.94 hours respectively. The custom hiring rate estimated for the wheat crop, was also found to be beneficial for the farmers.

Performance evaluation and cost economics for the mechanized harvesting of wheat crop using reaper-cum-binder at Sitamarhi district of Bihar

Wheat is one of the most important crop for Bihar, but productivity is lower as compared to other states. Mechanized harvesting of the wheat crop would ensure timeliness in operation, which would enhance crop yield and farmer’s economic benefits. The need of evaluating their different facets of economics for ensuring lower losses and higher efficiencies is of utmost importance and need of the hour. Therefore, under this project reaper-cum-binder was evaluated for its economics. In harvesting by the reaper-cum-binder, for the wheat crop, total grain losses were found to be 71.34 kg/ha whereas for manual harvesting it was found to be 52.41 kg/ha. The grain to straw ratio for the wheat crop by the reaper-cum-binder and by manual harvesting were the same as 1:1.2. The break-even hectares and break-even hours of reaper-cum-binder for the wheat crop for as 99.197 hectares and 260.90 hours, respectively. It was found that the labour requirement decreased drastically in case of reaper-cum-binder as compared to manual harvesting. The benefit of custom hiring rate for reaper cum binder was 13.2 per cent. The economics of the machine was compared to the conventional method of harvesting and the profit by using the reaper-cum-binder was found to be 1418.84Rs. /ha.

Transformation of Indian Agriculture through Mechanization

India accounts for only about 2.4% of the world's geographical area and 4% of its water resources, but has to support about 17% of the world's human population and 15% of the livestock. Agriculture is an important sector of the Indian economy, accounting for 17% of the nation's GDP, about 11% of its exports, about half of the population still relies on agriculture as its principal source of income and it is a source of raw material for a large number of industries. Accelerating the growth of agriculture production is therefore necessary to meet the rising demand for food, but also to increase incomes of those dependent on agriculture to ensure inclusiveness. The productivity of farms depends greatly on the availability and judicious use of farm power by the farmers. Agricultural implements and machines enable the farmers to employ the power judiciously for production purposes. Agricultural machines increase productivity of land and labour by meeting timeliness of farm operations and increase work out-put per unit time. Besides its paramount contribution to the multiple cropping and diversification of agriculture, mechanization also enables efficient utilization of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and irrigation water. Mechanization in agriculture enhances production and productivity of crops through timeliness, better management of inputs, improved quality of work and reduction of post-harvest losses. The study revealed that the domestic sale of tractor is the highest (45.41%) for the 41–50 hp range followed by 36% for the 31–40 hp range during 2015–16. The demand of high power category tractors in India increased for using high capacity farm machines on custom hiring basis. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra together account for about 45.21% of the total tractors sale in India during 2015–16. The net area sown by a tractor was 487 ha during 1975–76 and reduced to 24 ha by 2015–16 that still lags behind the developed countries and even some of the developing countries of the world (e.g. China) in terms of the net area sown by a tractor. Farm power availability of India was 0.48 kW/ha in 1975–76 reached to 2.13 kW/ha in 2015–16, which is 4.44 times higher over a period of forty years. A positive direct correlation was found between available farm power, food grain productivity and cropping intensity for the country. With the increase in intensity of cropping, the turnaround time is drastically reduced and it is not possible to harvest and thresh the standing crop, on one hand, and prepare seed bed and do timely sowing operations of subsequent crop, on the other hand, in the limited time available, unless adequate farm power and matching implement is available.

Stakeholders prioritization of climate-smart agriculture interventions: Evaluation of a framework

This paper presents a framework to prioritize locally suitable climate-smart agricultural (CSA) interventions and implementation suitability assessments with key stakeholders: state and district agriculture departments, extension offices, agriculture research institutions, NGOs and donor agencies, private sector and farmers. Prioritization of appropriate interventions for given contexts is needed to assist relevant stakeholders to make strategic decisions and improve adaptability and efficiency of agriculture production system in the face of climate change and variability. First step includes participatory identification and evaluation of location specific CSA interventions suitable for different crop and cropping system with potential to reduce climatic risks in agriculture. All CSA interventions were evaluated based on their contribution to increase farm productivity and income, building resilience to changing climate and reduction of agricultural emissions. Second step includes evaluation of overall implementation feasibility of selected CSA interventions based on their technical feasibility, cost of implementation, inclusivity and synergy with current government programs. In the third step, potential barriers of CSA technology adoption were assessed linking with availability of resources, farmers' knowledge and acceptability, access to agriculture extensions service, market and government support. In the fourth step, incentive mechanisms to promote CSA interventions such as government subsidy, market linkage, provision of loan and capacity building were evaluated with farmers and key stakeholders. Finally, this prioritization framework assessed the role of different organizations such as the government, private sector, non-government organizations, custom hiring centers and community based organizations in promoting CSA interventions at the local level. Results show that this framework provides ample space for local stakeholders to integrate their knowledge and experience on CSA interventions in prioritization and investment planning. Stakeholders prioritized mainly water and nutrient management technologies, agriculture insurance against climatic risks and ICT based weather and agro-advisory services. This framework provides a decision support tool for policy-making in adaptation and mitigation activities in agriculture sector at the local level. This framework can be used by governments, development organizations and the private sector for investment decision-making.

Understanding factors associated with agricultural mechanization: A Bangladesh case

Bangladesh is heralded as a success story in terms of smallholder agricultural mechanization enabled by appropriate small-scale machinery and policy. Using data collected in 2013 from 630 farm households in the coastal delta of South-West Bangladesh, this study assesses the factors associated with the adoption of small-scale machine types, particularly irrigation pumps, threshers and power tillers (two-wheel tractors). We use a multivariate probit model to account for the interdependence of machine type use and show the likelihood of adoption to be enhanced by the farmers’ economic position, market access and participation in off-farm work. Critically, machinery ownership is not necessary for their use as most farmers hire these machine services. Key policy implications are to facilitate machinery access and use by enabling the development of small-scale machinery and custom hiring services, and enhancing farmers’ income through access to markets, knowledge and off-farm income generating opportunities.

Impact of Farm Mechanization on Income of Farmers in Assam, India

The study was conducted in Central Brahmaputra Valley and Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam in India. The present study is an attempt to study the effect of mechanization on income and limiting factors of farm mechanization of the sample farms. Primary data of 240 sample farms by personal interview schedule method was used for examining the effect of farm mechanization on income along with limiting factors for mechanization adoption . All data collected from sample farms pertains to the year 2014-15. Tabular, per cent analysis were done and results obtained from these analysis were summarized to examine the impact of farm mechanization on income . In case of Tractor Ownership Farm, Tractor Hired Farm, Power Tiller Ownership Farm, Power Tiller Hired Farm and Bullock Operated Farm gross return per cropped hectare were Rs.62916.24, Rs. 61370.31, Rs.62408.87, Rs. 56783.89 and Rs.34425.58, respectively. Family labour income and net income also had inverse relationship with farm size in each categories of mechanized and Bullock Operated Farm and exception in case of under Group III under Tractor Hired Farm. Family labour income and net income relative proportion of each mechanized farm was higher over Bullock Operated Farm. Net return were observed to be Rs. 33898.17, Rs.377.76, Rs. 33606.45, Rs.27831.05 and Rs. (-)12075.51 in Tractor Ownership Farm, Tractor Hired Farm, Power Tiller Ownership Farm, Power Tiller Hired Farm and Bullock Operated Farms, respectively. Family labour income and net income also had inverse relationship with farm size in each categories of mechanized and Bullock Operated Farm and exception in case of under Group III under Tractor Hired Farm. Family labour income and net income relative proportion of each mechanized farm was higher over Bullock Operated Farm. Hence it was observed that there was positive impact of farm mechanization on income. In case of Tractor Hired Farm net income was higher than Tractor Ownership Farm. Small and scattered land holding and inadequate sufficient funds to meet the initial cost of purchasing were the most serious problem faced by the farmers in the study area as out of total household 170 and 169 numbers of farmers found it most serious in case of small and scattered land holding and high initial cost to purchase the machineries respectively So, hence effort should be given to make available of the tractors amongst the farmers in the study area through establishment of Farm Machinery Banks for custom hiring along with development financing of second hand tractors for small farmers having operational holding less than 2 hectares should been given to make economical use machineries amongst the small farmers in the study area.

Satisfaction level of farmers regarding custom hiring services through cooperative agricultural service societies (CASSs) in Ludhiana district of Punjab

Custom hiring services (CHSs) enable the farmers to take the required equipment on hire basis for a defined period only thus paying for the services of the machines without having them. The present study was undertaken to find out the satisfaction level of farmers availing the services from the cooperative agricultural service societies (CASSs). A sample of 150 farmers who were availing the custom hiring services from five CASSs was selected. It was observed that majority of the farmers were in the age group of 44 to 62 years; lived in joint families; had educational level up to matric and medium to semi-medium operational landholding. Majority of the farmers had low to medium mass media exposure. Maximum number of farmers acquired information regarding custom hiring services from the officials of CASSs. Majority of them had a high level of satisfaction regarding the CHSs. About one-fifth of the farmers were dissatisfied with the less number of machines in the society followed by non-availability of machines at the time of requirement. The other prominent reason for the dissatisfaction of farmers was non-availability of required number of machines.

CUSTOM HIRING VERSUS OWNERSHIP OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY SERVICES IN RICE PRODUCTION FARMS IN ALNAJAF AL-ASHRAF PROVINCE

Investments in ownership of agricultural machinery services and access to them, especially for small-scale farmers, may not be the minimum cost option in comparison with hiring these required services through oral or written agricultural hire contracts. The main objective of this research is to test whether the custom hiring status of agricultural machinery services is better for selected sample in comparison with the other potential alternatives. The theoretical framework based on the financial approach of engineering costs analysis of agricultural machineries services, to calculate discounted cash flows. The data were collected by using cross- section data in rice production farms in Alnajaf Al-ashraf province during 2015 farming season. The results indicated that the total costs of the used machineries are lower purchasing price, fixed costs and requires more powered skills than new machineries. Results also pointed out that the values of net present criterion had negative sign and less than zero at 5%, 7% and 10% discount rates because of the costs of financing exceed total revenues earned from agricultural machineries in addition to the results showed that the investments on all new and used agricultural machinery in the study area are unprofitable based on profitability ratio criteria. The custom hire should be encouraged for enhancing the use of agricultural machinery services in the province due to it is highly profitable from the individual investor viewpoint.

Farmers Strategies to Cope Labour Shortage in Northern and Southern Dry Zones of Karnataka, India

This study aimed to analyze the strategies adopted by the farmers to overcome the labour shortage in Sindhanur taluk of Raichur district and Mandya taluk of Mandya district. Random sample of 120 farmers each from the taluk were selected for the study. Opinion survey was conducted and results revealed that mechanization of agricultural operations, shifting towards less labour required crops, hiring labour from outside the village and intensive use of family labour are the major strategies adopted by farmers to overcome labour shortage. Mechanization in agriculture helped to solve the labour shortage. Therefore, this study concludes that the awareness among farmers should be created about existence of custom hiring centres and they should be encouraged to use it through self help groups based on subsidized rates.

Risks and adaptation strategies in rainfed agriculture in India: An analysis

Farmers in the rainfed regions of India have to routinely deal with risks from biotic and abiotic sources, that varies with the region and crop cultivated. An assessment of the risk sources and adaptation strategies is attempted in this paper using a total of 500 farmers combinedly from Maharashtra and Telangana. Data collected using a questionnaire in Likert scale format was analysed using principal component factor analysis. With regard to the willingness to take risk by the farmers, just below half of the farmers were risk averse. Issues faced by the farmers with regard to inputs, private information sources, public information sources, irrigation, non-institutional credit sources, custom hiring services, and institutional credit sources were perceived as major risk sources. Strategies perceived by farmers as important to adapt to the risk situations were identified as the ones related to varietal management, community support, price stabilisation mechanism, government support, and self-insurance.

Breakeven analysis of custom hiring service centres operating in agriculture – An economic study in Karnataka

Breakeven analysis of custom hiring service centres operating in agriculture – An economic study in Karnataka

Mechanical transplanting of rice in India: Status, technological gaps and future thrust

Traditional way of rice transplanting is labor intensive and involves drudgery. Mechanical rice transplanter is costeffective and operation friendly. It helps in maintaining soil physical properties and is considered to be better from crop management and productivity point of view. In spite of having an edge over the traditional transplanting, adoption rate of mechanical transplanters is low due to high initial investment and lack of knowledge in growing mat type nursery. Imparting technical knowledge, ensuring timely availability and encouraging custom hiring may be some of the practical solutions for increasing the rice area under mechanical transplanting. This review summarizes the problems associated with rice transplanting, technological gaps in adoption of mechanical transplanter and future research to make transplanter more user friendly.

Comparative cost and returns of tractor owned and hired farms in Tungabhadra project (TBP) area of Karnataka, India

Mechanization saves time in completing different operations, which gives the crop more time to mature, allows the farmer to be more flexible in his farming operations and facilitates multi cropping. At present in India, trac-tors are being used for tillage on about 22.78 per cent of the total land area and sowing about 21.30 per cent of total area. Custom hiring service (CHS) is a popular method of gaining short-term control of farm machineries. The CHS gained importance mainly due to rise in the cropping intensity and drop in average landholdings. The productivity of major crops is higher on the tractor owning farms due to timely and sufficient availability of tractor services and 61.67 per cent of large farmers and 11.67 per cent of medium farmers own tractors. The net farm income is higher on tractor owning farms but input costs are low on custom hiring farms. It may be due to the high fixed costs and variable costs on tractor owning farms. The tractor charge was relatively same for all tractor drawn implements, it was ranging from `135.15/h to `142.11/h. The cost incurred was highest for rotavator (`574.93/h) followed by cage wheel puddler (`491.58/h) and MB plough (`462.58/h).The small and medium tractor hiring farms earned more net income. This shows that it is better for smaller farms to hire tractor services rather to have their own tractor CHS would constitute a reliable tool for implementing specific farming practices and obtaining a reasonable income.

Changing Crop Production Cost in India: Input Prices, Substitution and Technological Effects

The study has examined economics of crop cultivation at the aggregate level over the past 25 years, identified sources of cost escalation and evaluated the effects of factor prices, substitution and technological effects on the production cost. The results reveal that a disproportionate change in gross return vis-a-vis cost resulted in varying rate of return from crop enterprise during the past 25 years. During 2007–08 to 2014–15, the average cost inflation reached the highest level of 13 per cent, more than half of which was contributed by the rising labour cost alone. Further, at the aggregate level, use of physical inputs increased only marginally and a large share of the increase in the cost of cultivation was attributed to the rising prices of inputs. The estimated negative and inelastic demand of inputs revealed a great scope to reduce the cost by keeping a check on input prices, particularly labour wages. The estimated elasticity of substitution indicated imperfect substitution between labour and machine and the present level of farm mechanization is inadequate to offset the wage-push cost inflation in Indian agriculture. It is therefore necessary to accelerate appropriate farm mechanization through the development of farm machinery suitable and economical at small farms and improvement in its access through the custom hiring. The study has also revealed a slow rate of yield improvement to offset the rising cost.

Development of the Capital Service Market in Agriculture: The Emergence of Tractor-Hire Services in Ghana

This article examines the role of the capital service market in increasing the use of mechanical technology in smallholder agriculture. Custom hiring services have been essential to the widespread use of agricultural machines in many countries where small farms predominate. In the past, some governments in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) had attempted to supply agricultural mechanization services when there was no demand for such services. Recently, however, demand for mechanization in SSA has been on the rise. Tractor ownership has also increased considerably among medium- and large-scale farmers, who use the tractors on their own land and also hire them out to others. Using the example of Ghana, we examine the behavior of tractor owners and the role they are expected to play in the development of mechanization in SSA. We use survey data from eight districts in the transition and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana. The survey covered 1,843 farming households, including 408 tractor owners and was aimed at characterizing the transition from smallholder farming to medium- and large-scale commercial farming, including patterns of agricultural-machinery ownership and patterns of demand for agricultural mechanization. First, we analyze the relationships between tractor ownership, farm size, and tractor service provision using correlation analyses. Second, we estimate a tractor service cost function based on the hypothesis that hiring a tractor service is not a perfect substitute for owning one, especially for large-scale farmers. Our findings suggest that providing tractor services significantly increases the rate of tractor use, a precondition for economic use of tractors. Agricultural mechanization service providers are primarily medium- and large-scale farmers. These farmers buy tractors even if they cannot make full use of them on their own farms, and they provide tractor services to fellow farmers. Smallholders' use of these services is quite high. Increasing tractor use is essential to counter any risk that may be associated with owning a tractor. Traveling to a different rainfall zone to provide services or extending tractor use during the postharvest period (e.g., for shelling) can help to achieve this objective. While service provision and markets offer strong potential for the widespread adoption of mechanization, medium-scale farmers in particular will be important for spreading the use of tractors among farmers in SSA. The findings presented here support our belief that mechanization can develop where there is potential for a service market, even under smallholder agriculture.

Coping with weather aberrations for sustaining the productivity of rainfed farming

Rainfed agriculture in India contributes to 40% of country's food basket, and supports 60% of livestock and 40% of human population. However, the productivity of rainfed regions is constrained extreme weather events. Technological and socio-economical factors have to play major roles in enhancing the current capacity of rainfed farmers to cope with climate change. The All India Coordinated Research Project on Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA) has developed and demonstrated the real-time contingency measures for each agro-ecological region of the country to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change. These measures include selection of resilient crops, varieties and cropping systems, rain water management, soil management, agro forestry system, integrated farming system, convergence of various schemes, government policies and programmes. The village level institutions (VLIs) like village climate risk management committee (VCRMC), custom hiring centre (CHC), seed bank, fodder bank etc., have a greater role to play in the initial preparedness for implementation of real time contingency planning.

Growing the service economy for sustainable wheat intensification in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains: lessons from custom hiring services for zero-tillage

Zero-tillage (ZT) is a proven technology for enhancing wheat productivity and, hence, food security in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, while reducing production costs. However, very few farmers possess their own tractors much less the specialized seed drills required to implement the technology. As a consequence, adoption of ZT largely hinges on affordable access to custom hire services. In Eastern India, the service economy for ZT is expanding, but remains in the early stages of growth. ZT service businesses remain largely uncharacterized, and related business dynamics poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap and derive recommendations for an efficient targeting of public sector support for those service providers (SPs) who are poised for growth, we identified factors that influence ZT entrepreneurship, encompassing new business formation and the resulting scale of the enterprise. We used data from a census of 270 ZT SPs in Bihar, as documented by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). To identify determinants of engaging in ZT service provision, the data were pooled with those of 1000 randomly-selected wheat farmers located in the same districts. We applied Heckman’s two-step estimation procedure to derive unbiased estimates of determinants of the scale of the ZT service businesses. ZT SPs are generally larger, tractor-owning farmers who have taken up service provision as a side business since 2010 or later. Only 8.3 % of the surveyed farm households owned a tractor, demonstrating the importance of service provision for accessing ZT and other mechanization technologies. ZT SPs expanded their businesses considerably from 2011 to 2012 to an average total of 20 clients and 50 ha serviced per SP. However, larger areas were primarily achieved by servicing larger client farms. Well-educated farmers with larger land holdings and extensive social networks are most likely to become ZT SPs. However, among this stratum, the relatively smaller scale farmers were most likely to provide services at a sizeable scale. To efficiently accelerate the spread of ZT technology, we conclude that these smaller-scale tractor-owning farmers are the most sensible targets for purchase subsidies on ZT drills as well as the primary audience for business development training. Since a considerable fraction of the ZT area expansion resulted from service provision to larger client farms, there is a need to develop business models that enhance the social inclusiveness of ZT services by reducing the transaction costs of reaching smallholders.

Socio-economic impact of zero - till wheat in Pratapgarh, district of U.P.

The zero-till wheat has significant impact in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh where sowing of wheat invariably delayed by 15 to 20 days resulting in reduction in yield can be avoided through ZT, due to 10-15 days earlier sowing than conventional method of wheat sowing, these findings are close conformity with findings of Sinha and Singh (2005). During study year 2013-14 it was observed that, on average the same crop yields are possible by zero-tillage compared to conventional tillage. The survey of 200 randomly selected zero tillage adopters and non-adopters has clearly established socio-cultural, psychological and economic gains by reflecting average grain production of zero-tillage 34.75 qt and conventional tillage 33.11 qt/ha. The percentage increase in wheat (grain) yield of zero-tillage over conventional tillage 4.95 per cent. The average yield of straw was recorded zero-tillage-37.65qt/ha and conventional 39.50 qt/ha which was 4.90 per cent less than conventional method and comparatively more economical technique in rice-wheat cropping system similar findings of Muhammad et al. (2011), crucial incentive for resource poor farmers. Further, the scanning of socio-economic data indicated that ZT technology had sense of achievement, merit for promotion, technical feasibility, stress reduction and opportunity for custom hiring services.