Scope of mechanization
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Agriculture is the most important sector of the Indian economy. Most of the farming is carried out on small holdings. About 78% of farm holdings belongs to small and marginal farmers, about 22% belongs to semi, medium and large farm holders. Moreover, the Indian farmers have the lowest earnings per capita because of the low yield per hectare from their holdings. Food grain production is almost stagnant (2001-2002: 212.85 million tones; 2006-2007:211.78 million tones). Whereas, population statistics shows that, India population was 1.065 billion in July 2004, at present 1.128 billion and projected population is 2 billion by 2101. Mechanization is the only solution for increasing farm production per hectare to enable us to meet the food requirement of growing population. There is a positive correlation between application of improved technologies and the land productivity. The effective mechanization contributes to increase production in two major ways: the timeliness of operation and good quality of work
The requirement of power for certain operations like seed bed preparation, cultivation and harvesting becomes so great that the existing human and animal power in the country appears to be inadequate. As a result, the operations are either partially done or sometimes completely neglected, resulting in low yield due to poor growth or untimely harvesting or both. Yet Indian agriculture lacks farm power which needs to be increased from 1.25 kW/ha to at least 2.0 kW/ha. Draft animals and farm workers are important sources of farm power. Mechanization possibility is strongly influenced by: (i) farm size, (ii) cost of farm labour, and (iii) availability of suitable machines. The farming system continues to utilize manual labour, animal power and tractor based technology in almost all operations.
The economic progress of a nation depends directly upon availability of energy and its consumption for fruitful utilization. Increased energy input in agriculture directly or indirectly increases the production of crops. In order to bring more land under cultivation and to improve productivity, it is necessary to introduce other sources of power like tractors, power tillers, oil engines, self propelled combine harvester, electric motors and renewable energy (specially wind mills for water pumping).
Mechanization in India may have to be done at various levels. Broadly, it can be done in three different ways:
1. By introducing the improved agricultural implements on small size holdings to be operated by bullocks;
2. By introducing the small tractors, tractor-drawn machines and power tillers on medium size holdings to supplement existing sources;
3. By introducing the large size tractors and machines on the remaining holdings to supplement animal power source.
These machines will be helpful in providing power efficiently for good seedbed preparation which is quite essential for maximizing the germination of the seed. In addition to this, the mechanization of the following fields of agriculture is equally essential:
1. Shaping and leveling of farm fields for even distribution of irrigation water.
2. Development of planting and fertilizing machines.
3. Spraying and dusting machinery.
4. Mechanization of harvesting, threshing, winnowing and drying operations.
Improved agricultural tools and equipment are estimated to contribute to the food and agricultural production in India by savings in seeds (15-20%), fertilizers (15-20%), time (20-30%), and labour (20-30%);
There is a good scope of farm mechanization in India due to the following reasons:
(i) Improved irrigation facility in the area,
(ii) Introduction of high yielding varieties of seeds,
(iii) Introduction of high dose of fertilizers and pesticides for different crops,
(iv) Introduction of new crops in different crops of the country, and
(v) Multi-cropping system and intensive cultivation, followed in different parts of
the country.
