ABSTRACT

In this chapter we have tried to answer the following research questions: (i) Who uses technology in agriculture? (ii) What are the associates of technology use in agriculture? (iii) How do farmers obtain information on modern technology? (iv) Is technology use limited to specific crops? We have used the National Sample Survey 70th round data to answer these questions. We found that a very small proportion (4.41 per cent) of agricultural households in India received formal training in agriculture. At the all-India level, only 38 per cent of farm households use at least one of the eight sources for obtaining modern agricultural practices. For measuring the technology use by farmers, we looked at the machinery use by farmers, assuming that technology is embodied in the machinery/physical capital. Only 44.26 per cent of farm households reported expenditure on machinery. We found that crop category has the maximum influence on the decision whether or not to use machinery in agriculture. The other variables that influence the use of machinery in agriculture are crop insurance, use of any source for obtaining modern agricultural information, irrigation, marketable surplus and leased-in area. We also found that SC and ST households are in a disadvantageous position in the use of machinery in agriculture compared to the general category households. However, a greater proportion of OBC farm households use agricultural machinery as compared to general households.