Vol. 12, Issue 6 (2023)

Author(s):
B Mohanta, SK Swain and A Dash

Abstract:
Maize is the one of the highest yielding cereals and is used for food, feed and fodder. Area under maize cultivation in the country, as well as in state of Odisha is gradually increasing due to its high economic benefits from maize. The small and marginal farmers are getting lesser profit due to the use of traditional method of cultivation, use of conventional tools and machineries. Most of the unit operations in maize are generally carried out manually which is labour intensive thereby increasing the cost of cultivation. Therefore, in this study a set of improved animal powered machineries and implements were demonstrated in maize cultivation in order to study the gain in net benefits by adopting small farm mechanization. The study revealed that small and marginal maize farmers of Jajpur districts could save up to Rs 4200/- per hectare using the improved bullock drawn sowing implements and the B:C ratio has been increased up to 2.27 as compared to 1.93 in case of conventional maize farming.