Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.

Farm machinery is often sold to Indian farmers on the promise that it will cut costs. On a holding of two acres it frequently does the opposite. A tractor bought on credit has to be paid for whether or not there is enough land to justify it, and the repayment falls due whatever the season brought. Custom hiring, where a machine is owned by one party and hired out by the hour, spreads that cost over many holdings and is what makes mechanisation pay on small farms. It also depends on someone maintaining the machine, scheduling it and standing behind it when it fails, and that role is unglamorous, poorly rewarded, and mostly unfilled.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and practical message conveyed by the author of the passage?