Factors Influencing Farm Machinery Rental Service: A Sequential Exploratory Mixed-Method Study in an Agrarian State of India

This study seeks to determine the factors influencing the effectiveness of informal farm machinery rental services and also to assess these factors across the different sample districts of Assam. The study uses a sequential exploratory mixed-method research design to achieve these objectives. First, qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 informal service providers to identify operational constraints. The insights from these interviews led to the development of the survey instrument for the quantitative phase. In the quantitative phase, 400 farm machinery rental service users were surveyed in the sample areas. To determine the factors, exploratory factor analysis was conducted, and then analysis of variance was used to assess the factors across the districts. The exploratory factor analyses revealed two key factors, that is, technical service efficiency and service delivery, which influence the effectiveness of the informal farm machinery rental services. Technical service efficiency showed a higher variance than service delivery. Therefore, the study suggested policies to strengthen the service delivery for promoting sustainable and equitable mechanisation in the study area.