Some Problems of the Mechanization of Paddy Land Preparation in Sri Lanka and Lessons from Japan\u27s Experience

Sri Lanka’s failure to adapt the imported tractors and attached implements to the local field conditions, and to improve the field conditions to make them suitable to the modern farm machines considerably accounts for the poor work performance evident in the mechanized paddy land preparation. Concentration of the tractor ownership in the hands of local businessmen, and the resulting contract cultivating system adversely affect the income distribution. Japan managed to avoid these problems since the very inception of the mechanization by modifing the imported tractors and attachments and by improving the field conditions. Group ownership and utilization of farm machines which is popular in Japan, enables small farmers to enjoy the benefits of the ownership right of farm machines. Therefore, Japan’s experience in farm mechanization suggests that modification and improvement of imported tractors and attachments, improvement of paddy field conditions and group approach to tractor ownership may have greater potentials to solve some of the Sri Lanka’s problems of mechanization