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Agriculture Machinery – Uses, Types and Subsidies

Sangeeta Soni
Sangeeta Soni

With the advancement in agriculture, Agri-Machinery has become the most important part. If we talk about the growth of the agricultural sector, technology also plays an important role. Indian farmers are using Agri-Machinery for a long time. It has started with manual tools, then animal-drawn tools, and with the industrial revolution, big machinery is used in farms. 

Agricultural Revolution 

Here we are talking about mechanization in agriculture. This is the most important revolution in the agricultural sector. Mechanization has made farming much easier in comparison to older days. Starting from the early days, when farmers used to use human power for farming, i.e., doing all the work manually. And with the time, farmers used tom use animal power for farming with some mechanized tools, and still, many farmers use this way. And then comes the modern way, i.e., mechanized way. In this instead of human or animal power, farmers use the IC engine for power. Farmers use tractors in farming for different purposes by attaching different equipment with the tractor. 

Tractor 

It is the most important farm machinery. A tractor is a high power, low-speed traction vehicle. It is nearly similar to the truck but designed to be used off-road, i.e., on farms for different purposes. There are 39 models of tractors produced in India with different power ranges. A tractor is basically used to attach other tools that can’t power themselves. Tractor pulls those farm tools on the farm and we get desired work done. Modern tractors are powered by an IC engine and run through kerosene, gasoline, LPG, diesel fuel.  

Sprayer 

As clear by the name, it is used to spray insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers on the farm, some sprayers are also used to spray water. Today, the sprayer has become one of the most important equipment in farming.  The sprayer can be an agricultural-aircraft sprayer or blower sprayer. Sprayers also need time to time maintenance including necessary greasing of components, fluid level check-up, and sprayer monitor calibration. For effective spraying, droplet size also plays an important role, and droplet size depends on pressure. 
 

Cutters and Shredders 

These machines are used for shredding and cutting unwanted plants grown on the farm. Shredder involves three functions, shearing, tearing, and breaking in general, and in agricultural purposes, the shredder is used to cut or remove extra small plants. And shredder can shred all waste like coconut farm waste, banana farm waste, etc. This machine’s frame is made up of mild steel or tungsten carbide and more than one cutter is attached to it.  
 

Field Cultivator 

As it is clear by the name, field cultivators are used to cultivating the farm, it makes the proper seedbed for crops to be planted and also eradicates weeds and makes hardened soil softer so that it can be watered easily and also nutrients can reach the crop easily. It also stimulates microorganisms in the soil to become more active. And field cultivator saves time over plow. Plough needs more work and time in comparison to field cultivator, which is why, now a day’s field cultivator, is used more than the plough. 
 

Seeders and Planters 

After the cultivation is done, Seeders and planters are used for the sowing of seeds. In comparison to manual sowing, this works much faster, in old times, farmers need to sow every single seed with hands, but with this, a grouping of seeds and crops can be planted within an hour or so. 

Soil cultivation machinery 

Including field cultivators, many other types of machinery are used for soil cultivation purposes. These are the machines used for pulverizing the soil and eliminate weeds and loosen the soil for better absorption of water and nutrients can reach the crop easily. These equipment are powered by tractor. Some of them are cultipacker, rotary-tiller, plough, strip-till, harrow. 
 

Harvesting equipment 

These are the machines used for harvesting the crop. Some of this equipment do more than one task, like harvesting and cleaning grain crops, both tasks together. Just like this, here given example harvesting equipment do more than one task and the operating mechanism of all these equipment is different from one another. Some of them are, Combine-harvester, mower, sickle, reaper, crop harvesting machine, grain harvesting machine, conveyer belt, reaper. 

Future Trend of Agri-Machinery 

With the improvements in technology and digitalization, the future of agri-machinery seems to be promising. In the present condition, there are many limiting factors in mechanization, such as 

  • Farmers with small landholdings can’t switch to mechanization due to large machines and their costs.
  • For different farm operations, machines are not available,
  • There is not enough coordination between research centers and agri-machinery manufacturers.
  • The proper servicing facility also isn’t available.

Looking at all these limiting factors, Industry is working for all these only. Along with this, safety, convenience, and comfort will be the prior factors. And some machines can’t be used in farms in the present state, so this will also be the major work in the future to reduce the size of machines and make them economic too.  

In the future, farmers will have access to economic and sustainable machinery, which will benefit them and make farming easier and in an all, will benefit the Nation. 

Agri-Machinery Manufacturers  in India

There are many agricultural machinery manufacturers in India. Some of the major manufacturers are listed here. 

  1. Eicher motors https://eichertractors.in/eichertractors/
  2. Force motorshttps://www.forcemotors.com/agricultural-vehicles
  3. Mahindra tractorshttps://www.mahindratractor.com/
  4. HMThttp://www.hmtindia.com
  5. Tractors and farm equipment limitedhttps://www.tafe.com/
  6. Sonalika tractorshttps://www.sonalika.com/
  7. Deccan farm equipment http://www.deccanequipments.com

 

Farm machinery training and testing  

The three major farm machinery training and testing institutes in India are: 

  1. Northern Region Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Hissar(Haryana) 
  2. Central Region Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Budni(M.P.) 
  3. Southern Region Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Ananatpur(A.P.) 

Subsidies on Agri- machinery

As the Indian Economy is mainly dependent on the farming sector, so agricultural subsidies are necessary. To ease the work of farmers, farming machines are necessary, but due to the high cost, they are not affordable for every farmer. Therefore, Government has implemented subsidies on some Agri-machinery. 

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