Agriculture Mechanization – An Overview
Agriculture Mechanization increases the rapidity and speed of work with which farming operations can be performed. It raises the efficiency of labour and enhances farm production per worker. By its nature, it reduces the quantum of labour needed to produce a unit of output. Agriculture Mechanization increases the rapidity and speed of work with which farming operations can be performed. It raises the efficiency of labour and enhances farm production per worker. By its nature, it reduces the quantum of labour needed to produce a unit of output.
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Abstract
The shifting of society to an agrarian system, then to an industrial society with populations mainly
located in urban areas, has reduced the availability of agricultural labor and caused an increase in the
mechanization of agricultural machinery. Agricultural mechanization started with the steam-powered
reapers and traction engine, then advanced with the invention of mobile hydraulics and electronic
control systems that are used in modern machinery today. These systems can be combined with various
sensor systems, including GPS, to help guide and automate the vehicles to improve their efficiency,
reduce crop damage, and improve crop yields through better cultural practices.
i. Introduction
Agricultural mechanization arises as a response to limited agricultural labor and fertilizers, just as the
green revolution package responds to rises in land prices. Agriculture can be described as having three
eras. The first is best characterized as the blood, sweat, and tears era, when famine and fatigue were
common and inadequate food supplies occurred frequently. Agriculture's second developmental stage,
the mechanical era, began with invention of labor-saving machines. The effect of agricultural
mechanization can be described by the changes in farm population that began in the nineteenth
century. With the advantages of improving, available, and inexpensive machines, farming became more
efficient and the need for labor was reduced. The chemical era of agriculture boosted production and
costs again.
ii.
Agriculture Mechanization – An Overview
The agricultural revolution of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s transformed the practice of agriculture,
reduced the number of people on farms, and significantly increased the productivity of those who
remained.
In G. D. Aggarwal’s words, “Farm mechanization is a term used in a very broad’ sense. It not only
includes the use of machines, whether mobile or immobile, small or large, run by power and used for
tillage operations, harvesting and thrashing but also includes power lifts for irrigation, trucks for haulage
of farm produce, processing machines, dairy appliances for cream separating, butter making, oil
pressing, cotton ginning, rice hulling, and even various electrical home appliances like radios, irons,
washing machines, vacuum cleaners and hot plates.”
According to Dr. Bhattacharjee, “Mechanization of agriculture and farming process connotes application
of machine power to work on land, usually performed by bullocks, horses and other draught animals or
by human labour.”
According to Dr. C. B. Memoria, “It (mechanization) chiefly consists in either replacing, or assisting or
doing away with both the animal and human labour in farming by mechanical power wherever
possible.”
“Mechanization may be either partial or complete. It is partial when only a part of the farm work is done
by machine. When animal or human labour is completely dispensed with by power supplying machines,
it is termed as complete.”
“Broadly speaking mechanization of agriculture has two forms mobile mechanization and the stationary
types of mechanization. The former attempts to replace animal power on which agriculture has been
based for very many centuries; while the latter aims at reducing the drudgery of certain operations
which have to be performed cither by human labour or by a combined effort of human beings and
animals.”
iii.
Benefits of Mechanization of Agriculture:
(1) It Increases Production:
Mechanization increases the rapidity and speed of work with which farming operations can be
performed. According to D. R. Bomford, “The ploughman with his three-horse am controlled threehorse;
power, when given a medium-sized crawler tractor controlled between 20 to 30 horse power. His
output, there-fore, went up in the ratio of about 8: 1.”
According to B. K. S. Jain, “In the U.S.A. a labourer who formerly ploughed one acre of land with a pair of
horses is now able to account for 12 acres a day with a gasoline-driven tractor. By this quickening of
agricultural practices the human labour required is minimised. Over a period of three decades in U.S.A.,
a study revealed that one-third increase was due to the use of chemicals: another one third due to
better varieties, and wealthier seeds, while another one-third was due to improved farm machinery.”
According to Roy D Laird, “A more recent and more spectacular development in mechanization of
agriculture has been brought in the U.S.S.R., where four times the agricultural output became that of
1913 and grain production alone increased by 70 per cent by 1960. By 1965 Socialist Competition,
increased electrification and more machinery were supposed to induce a 100% increase in the efficiency
of agricultural labour in that country.”
(2) It Increases Efficiency and Per Man Productivity:
Mechanization raises the efficiency of labour and enhances the farm production per worker. By its
nature it reduces the quantum of labour needed to produce a unit of output. In the U.S.A., “the amount
of human labour used to produce 100 bushels of wheat dropped from 320 hours in the year 1830 to 108
hours in 1900; by 1940 a new series of improvements has reduced labour requirements to 47 hours.”
(Bureau of Agricultural Economics).
According to Hecht and Barton, “Before the World War I. it took, about 35 man hrs. to grow and harvest
an acre of corn ; 15.2 hrs. for an acre of wheat and 15.7 hrs. for an acre of oat. In 1945-48, the labour
requirements were 23.7, 6.1 and 8.1 man hours respectively. The combined, effect of fewer hours and
more bushels per acre has resulted in more than halving labour requirements per unit of production.
The number of man-hours required in 1910-14 per 100 bushels of corn was 135, of wheat 106 and of oat
58; in 1945- 48, the corresponding figures were 67,34 and 23 respectively.”
“It is estimated that productivity per man on farms in U.S.A. is about four and a half times that in the
U.S.S.R.” (Jusny) “In the U.S.S.R. in collective farms, production has raised labour productivity to a high
level compared with the pre- revolutionary days; now labour is three times more productive there.”
(Anisimov)
(3) Mechanization Increases the Yield of Land Per Unit of Area:
S.E. Johnson holds that “of 28 per cent increase in farm output in U.S.A., above the average of 1934-39
only about one-fourth is due to better weather, probably less than 15 per cent has resulted from
expansion of crop, land acreage and the rest, about 60 per cent is largely accounted for by the fuller use
of the improvements in crops, live stocks and machinery. Increase in the yield of crops, due to
mechanization of farms, has been traced from 40 to 50 per cent in the case of maize; 15 to 20 per cent
in Bajra and Paddy; 30 to 40 per cent in Jowar, Groundnut and Wheat.”
(4) Mechanization Results in Lower Cost of Work
It has been accepted by all that one of the methods of reducing unit costs is to enlarge the size c* the
farms and go in for more intensive farming. It is found that the cost of production and the yields can be
adjusted properly if mechanization is resorted to.
(5) It Contracts the Demand for Work Animals for ploughing water lifting, harvesting, transport etc.:
In actual operation, costs amount to little when machines are idle, whereas the cost of maintenance of
draught animals remains the same during both periods of working and idleness, because animals have
to be fed whether they are doing work or not. It is advantageous to use tractors when a great deal of
work has to be done in a short time.
(6) It Brings in other Improvements in Agricultural Technique:
In its training come improvements in the sphere of irrigation, land reclamation and the prevention of
soil erosion. The present-day dependence on the monsoon as the only irrigation of crops in India can be
obtained by a more scientific approach.
Besides, ploughing by tractor reclaims more land and thereby extends the cultivated area as the tractor
smoothens hillocks, fills in depressions and gullies and eradicate deeps-rooted weeds. It also prevents
soil erosion. Besides mechanical fertilization, contour bunding and terracing are done by mechanical
methods with the help of self-propelled graders and terraces.
(7) It Modifies Social Structure in Rural Areas:
It results in a significant modification of the social structure in rural areas. It frees the farmers from
much of the laborious, tedious, hard work on the farms. The pressure on land decreases and the status
of the farmers improves.
(8) It Leads to Commercial Agriculture:
Mechanisation results in a shift from ‘subsistence farming’ to ‘commercial agriculture. This shift occurs
mainly due to the need for more land and capital to be associated with farmer in order to reap the full
technological benefits.
This in its turn gives rise two tendencies:
(i) Gradual replacement of domestic or family by commercial methods, and
(ii) Search for international markets for agricultural produce.
(9) It Solves the Problem of Labour Shortage:
In countries where human labour falls short of requirements in agriculture, use of machines can replace
human and animal power.
(10) It Releases Manpower for Non-Agricultural Purposes:
Since the mechanisation of agriculture results in the employment of lesser number of persons on farms,
surplus manpower may be available for other economic activities.
(11) It Results in Better Use of Land:
Mechanisation also results in better utilization of agricultural land for “the substitution of gasoline
tractor for animal power means reduced demand. The use of machine energy, therefore, leads to good
agricultural production, to trade many crops or saleable animal products in short, to an exchange
economy and a system of land utilization in which cultivator rests on a different and infinitely more
complex basis than is found in the local self-sufficient economy.”
(12) It Increases Farm Income:
With the introduction of mechanisation the farm income as well as the individual income goes up. E. G.
Nourse writes, “It accounts for the unparalleled rise of national income and with it the standard of living,
it builds cities, it raises an ever loftier superstructure of financial, commercial and other cultural
institutions; it turns loose economic agglomerates into social economies to closely knit by a thousand
lines of interdependence. It creates much of the capital surplus on which modern economic progress is
largely based. It constitutes, the lion’s share to the public funds which support education, health and law
and order. In short, not only do machine industry, and mechanisation and science render agriculture
efficient, they create the very world in which this efficient agriculture can sell its bountiful crops.”
(13) It Reduces Fodder Area and Enlarges Food Area:
“With the introduction of mechanisation in agriculture the surplus animal power would be reduced so
that large areas of land required for producing fodder for it can be utilised for producing food for human
consumption. The remaining cattle population would be better attended to and better fed under
mechanised agriculture, for new and nourishing varieties of feeding stuff would be grown in cultural
(waste lands after reclaiming them for cultivation.” (Dr. Memoria)
iv.
The Impact of Mechanization on Agriculture
In the future, agricultural machines will become data-rich sensing and monitoring systems.
Significant challenges will have to be overcome to achieve the level of agricultural productivity
necessary to meet the predicted world demand for food, fiber, and fuel in 2050. Although agriculture
has met significant challenges in the past, targeted increases in productivity by 2050 will have to be
made in the face of stringent constraints—including limited resources, less skilled labor, and a limited
amount of arable land, among others.
The metric used to measure such progress is total factor productivity (TFP)—the output per unit of total
resources used in production. According to some predictions, agricultural output will have to double by
2050 (GHI, 2011), with simultaneous management of sustainability. This will require increasing TFP from
the current level of 1.4 for agricultural production systems to a consistent level of 1.75 or higher. To
reach that goal, we will need significant achievements in all of the factors that impact TFP.
Mechanization is one factor that has had a significant effect on TFP since the beginning of modern
agriculture. Mechanized harvesting, for example, was a key factor in increasing cotton production in the
last century (Figure 1). In the future, mechanization will also have to contribute to better management
of inputs, which will be critical to increasing TFP in global production systems that vary widely among
crop types and regional economic status.
For example, a scarce, basic resource that will have to be managed much better is water, a critical input
in agricultural production. Both the efficiency and effectiveness of water use will have to improve
dramatically.
Today, approximately 70 percent of withdrawals of fresh water are used for agriculture (Postel et al.,
1996). By 2025, 1.8 billion people are expected to be living in areas with absolute water scarcity (UN
FAO, 2007), and two-thirds of the world population will live in water-stressed areas. Improving water
management will have to be achieved by more efficient irrigation technology and higher efficiencies in
whatever technologies farmers are currently using.
In this article, I define the current state of agricultural systems productivity and demonstrate how
information and communication technologies (ICT) are being integrated into agricultural systems. I also
describe how the integration of ICT will create opportunities for increasing agricultural-system
productivity and influencing productivity beyond the agriculture value chain.
The Impact of Mechanization on Productivity
Agricultural mechanization, one of the great achievements of the 20th century (NAE, 2000), was enabled
by technologies that created value in agricultural production practices through the more efficient use of
labor, the timeliness of operations, and more efficient input management (Table 1) with a focus on
sustainable, high-productivity systems. Historically, affordable machinery, which increased capability
and standardization and measurably improved productivity, was a key enabler of agricultural
mechanization. Figure 2 shows some major developments since the mid-1800s by John Deere, a major
innovator and developer of machinery technology.
In the 19th century, as our society matured, a great many innovations transformed the face of American
agriculture. Taking advantage of a large labor base and draft animals, farmers had been able to manage
reasonable areas of land. This form of agriculture was still practiced in some places until the middle of
the 20th century.
Early innovations were implements and tools that increased the productivity of draft animals and
assisted farmers in preparing land for cultivation, planting and seeding, and managing and harvesting
crops. The origins of the John Deere Company, for example, were based on the steel-surfaced plow
developed by its founder. This important innovation increased the productivity of farmers working in the
sticky soils of the Midwest.
A major turning point occurred when tractors began to replace draft animals in the early decades of the
20th century. Tractors leveraged a growing oil economy to significantly accelerate agricultural
productivity and output. Early harvesting methods had required separate process operations for
different implements. With tractors, the number of necessary passes in a field for specific implements
was reduced, and eventually, those implements were combined through innovation into the
“combination” or combine harvester.
For most of the 20th century, four key factors influenced increases in the rate of crop production: more
efficient use of labor; the timeliness of operations; more efficient use of inputs; and more sustainable
productions systems (Table 1). These four drivers played out at different rates in different crop
production systems, but always led to more efficient systems with lower input costs. Technological
innovations generally increased mechanization by integrating functional processes in a machine or crop
production system and by making it possible for a farmer to manage increasingly large areas of land.
By the late 20th century, electronically controlled hydraulics and power systems were the enabling
technologies for improving machine performance and productivity. With an electronically addressable
machine architecture, coupled with public access to global navigation satellite system (GNSS) technology
in the mid-1990s, mechanization in the last 20 years has been focused on leveraging information,
automation, and communication to advance ongoing trends in the precision control of agricultural
production systems.
In general, advances in machine system automation have increased productivity, increased convenience,
and reduced skilled labor requirements for complex tasks. Moreover, benefits have been achieved in an
economical way and increased overall TFP.
From Mechanization to Cyber-Physical Systems
Today’s increasingly automated agricultural production systems depend on the collection, transfer, and
management of information by ICT to drive increased productivity. What was once a highly mechanical
system is becoming a dynamic cyber-physical system (CPS) that combines the cyber, or digital, domain
with the physical domain. The examples of CPS reviewed below suggest the future potential of ICT for
achieving the target TFP of 1.75 and beyond.
Precision Agriculture
Precision agriculture, or precision farming, is a systems approach for site-specific management of crop
production systems. The foundation of precision farming rests on geospatial data techniques for
improving the management of inputs and documenting production outputs.
As the size of farm implements and machines increased, farmers were able to manage larger land areas.
At first, these large machines typically used the same control levels across the width of the implement,
even though this was not always best for specific portions of the landscape that might have different
spatial and other characteristics (Sevila and Blackmore, 2001).
A key technology enabler for precision farming resulted from the public availability of GNSS, a
technology that emerged in the mid-1990s. GNSS provided meter, and eventually decimeter, accuracy
for mapping yields and moisture content. A number of ICT approaches were enabled by precision
agriculture, but generally, its success is attributable to the design of machinery with the capacity for
variable-rate applications. Examples include precision planters, sprayers, fertilizer applicators, and tillage
instruments.
The predominant control strategies for these systems are based on management maps developed by
farmers and their crop consultants. Typically, mapping is done using a geographic information system
(GIS), based on characteristics of crops, landscape, and prior harvest operations.
Sources of data for site-specific maps can be satellite imaging, aerial remote sensing, GIS mapping, field
mapping, and derivatives of these technologies. Some novel concepts being explored suggest that
management strategies can be derived from a combination of geospatial terrain characteristics and
sensed information (Hendrickson, 2009). All of these systems are enabled by ICT.
A competitive technology for map-based precision farming is on-the-go sensing systems, based on the
concept of machine-based sensing of agronomic properties (plant health, soil properties, presence of
disease or weeds, etc). The immediate use of these data drives control systems for variable-rate
applications. These sensor capabilities essentially turn the agricultural vehicle into a mobile recording
system of crop attributes measured across the landscape. In fact, current production platforms are
increasingly becoming tools for value-added applications through ICT.
Precision Guidance
Around the turn of the 21st century, GNSS technology had become so precise and accurate that it had
outpaced the requirement for the early phases of precision farming and become commercially viable for
enabling a number of automatic-guidance applications (Han et al., 2004). Advances in GNSS technologies
include decimeter to centimeter accuracy by using signals from a geospatially known reference point to
correct satellite signals. One premium example is a real-time kine-matic global positioning system (RTK-
GPS) technology (Figure 3a) that reduces fatigue and lowers the skill level required to achieve highperformance
accuracy in field operations.
In short, in less than 20 years, GPS technology went from being an emergent technology to a robust,
mature technology that has optimal capabilities for production agriculture. A number of solutions are
emerging today (Figure 3a) for achieving high-precision accuracy through various reference-signal
configurations (e.g., RTK-GPS, multiple satellite systems, sensor fusion with complementary sensors, and
multiple sources of corrections).
Operator-guidance aids that provide feedback to the operator about required steering corrections
through audio and visual cues were the first systems on the market for precision guidance. This feature
allowed a vehicle system to follow paths parallel to prior operations across a field. These types of
systems worked well at decimeter accuracy and required no major control-system integration into the
vehicle.
The major benefits of these systems were to reduce overlap/underlap in field operations with extremely
wide implements, typically for spraying chemicals and fertilizers. The decrease in overlap meant the
parsimonious use of resources. The decrease in underlap meant that chemicals and fertilizers were
applied to every part of the field.
On the next level of evolution, automatic guidance systems appeared that managed steering for an
operator through automatic control. Automatic guidance systems enabled precision operations
depending on the type of GNSS signal and how it was integrated into the requirements of the
agricultural operations.
GNSS technology enabled the management of inputs such as seed, pesticides, and fertilizers with
precision across the field. For example, the chemical application to buffer zones and grassy waterways
was reduced based on sensing of the field location of these features. John Deere’s software product,
SwathControl Pro (Figure 3b), enabled farmers to manage the definition and execution of this capability.
GNSS technology provided the reference signal that enabled accurate vehicle location at the GNSS
sensor, but precision control of the machine required several additions to the system (e.g., attitude
correction, inertial sensors, implement control). With these features, a mobile CPS could correct the
attitude of the vehicle on uneven terrain and manage the vehicle system path for precision in the
execution of complex functions.
The ultimate in un-manned automation is the capability of driving complete field patterns under
autonomous management of the tractor-implement functions without frequent operator intervention.
Figure 3c shows one commercial example of the execution of this concept. The figure shows a very
rudimentary form of path planning, integrated with automatic guidance, that can increase productivity
by managing the paths a vehicle must follow. Path management can be programmed to reduce time loss
caused by navigation (e.g., turning around) and implement management.
Like precision agriculture, precision guidance creates data from its precision operations that could be
used in crop management. Examples of these data include information on the “as-applied” state of
operations, vehicle paths, and operational state variables. The data can then be used to meet the needs
of other ICT in systems automation and optimization.
System Automation and Control
Until recently, automation has been focused on functions that depend on GNSS or direct sensing.
However, processes that lend themselves to control based on the attributes of soil and crop properties
are also being investigated. Some initial applications of these, which were coupled with GPS, mapped
the yield and moisture of harvested crop operations.
It is also possible to use sensing of soil or crop properties—such as controlling the cut-length of a selfpropelled
forage harvester (SPFH)—as part of a combination of techniques to increase machine system
productivity. In this example, the cut-length is the section length into which a tree, or forage plant, is
cut. When an SPFH is operated with static cutting settings, independent of the size of the forage plant, it
can consume a significant amount of energy in cutting forage for ensiling (storage in silos).
HarvestLab, a sensing technology, uses near infrared (NIR) reflectance sensing to detect the moisture
content of forage and adjust the cut-length of harvested material (Figure 3d). This control strategy can
significantly reduce the energy consumption for harvesting forage with no degradation in the ensiling
process. The results are a significant reduction in fuel consumption in the harvest operation and a highquality
cut, which enables proper forage preservation.
NIR sensing has often been used in the laboratory and in grain processing and storage to measure
properties (e.g., moisture oil and protein content) of biological materials, which contributes to valueadded
uses of corn, cereal grains, and forage. As these technologies mature, ICT has the potential to
connect information about constituent properties to downstream processes.
Machine Communications
The automation methods described above generate massive amounts of data. However, the data are
not limited to on-vehicle storage or even to on-the-go decision making. Inter-machine communication
greatly increases the potential of these systems.
In the last few years, the commercial application of telematics devices on machines has been increasing
in agriculture, thus empowering a closer connection between farmers and dealers in managing machine
uptime and maintenance services. Other applications for machine communication systems include fleet
and asset management.
In addition, inter-machine communications are expanding machine system data applications, such as
diagnosing and prognosticating machine health. Inter-machine communications can also include
implements and tools (e.g., monitoring seeding rate in tractor implement applications). Functionally, a
modern, high-end agricultural machine system is effectively a mobile, geospatial data-collection
platform with the capacity to receive, use, sense, store, and transmit data as an integral part of its
operational performance.
As we strive for higher TFP levels, these high-end applications are moving toward systems with
increasingly advanced ICT capabilities, including data communication management from machine to offmachine
data stores. Other ICT capabilities under development include vehicle-to-vehicle operations
management in the field.
It is clearly within the vision of the industry to develop advanced capabilities (such as those listed below)
that leverage these ICT innovations:
• machine knowledge centers that enable improved design, faster problem resolution, and higher
system productivity, increased uptime, and lower operat-ing costs
• stores of agronomic knowledge that can lead to optimization of farm-site production systems
• stores of social knowledge related to customer or consumer value-drivers
As ICT continues to penetrate production systems, a massive network is being developed of machine
systems that are platforms for value creation—well beyond productivity from agricultural mechanization
intended for the farmer or the farm site. These systems are collecting and managing information with
potential value in downstream value-chain operations that use crop or drive systems to achieve
environmental sustainability.
Worksite and Value Chain Productivity
The next step in automation and control is to move beyond individual vehicle systems to the
optimization of production systems and farm worksites. To achieve this goal, we have developed the
beginnings of vehicle and machine systems that can both sense and control with precision. These
systems can be driven by data from a variety of sources to provide precision control. For example, they
are capable of collecting, storing, and transferring information about the crop, field, and machine state
at the time of field operation. They can also receive data from public and private data sources.
Furthermore, data collected by machines can be transferred to farm-management systems as well as to
public and private sources that require information about production management for quality,
compliance, or value-added purposes. Thus, we are entering an era of emerging field and farm
optimization systems that can drive up TFP of the worksite, including machines, geographies, and
cropping systems.
As intelligent mobile equipment for worksite solutions has evolved over the last 20 years, agricultural
mechanization has also evolved from a bottom-up integration of the foundations of ICT applied to basic
mechanization systems required for crop production. The primary machine capabilities of precision
sensing, advanced control systems, and communications have created the potential for the emergence
of CPS from production agricultural systems.
Although these advanced technologies are not uniformly distributed among platforms and production
systems, where they exist, there are opportunities to leverage ICT to increase production systems
capabilities. Looking ahead, it is expected that the business value of ICT will expand to additional
platforms.
Technologies integrated on vehicles must work seamlessly with other systems. Drawbacks of some
initial attempts for ICT capabilities have been the significant time required for setup or management,
the lack of a common architecture, the lack of standardization among industries, and the lack of
standardization with the farmer in mind as a user of ICT. Recently, several organizations have been
working to develop standards, and some improvements have already been developed or are in process
(ICT Standards Board, 2006; U.S. Access Board, 2010).1
Centers that store machine, agronomic, and social knowledge will aggregate data to provide valueadded
services for machinery operation and farm management. Some of these data may be collected by
farmers, and some will be provided by public and private sources of agricultural information. Some data
sources, such as remote sensing, have been mentioned, but a number of others will emerge as the
aggregated knowledge in efficient production agriculture increases.
Centers with machine knowledge can help increase equipment uptime and anticipate machine system
failures based on vehicle state variables in operation. Machine data that provide a better understanding
of machine use can also lead to more efficient system designs that meet the needs of farmers.
Agronomic data will create new opportunities for intensive modeling and simulation that can improve
production efficiency by anticipating the impact of weather and various production methods.
In the future, ICT will enable the development of new platforms that can provide more support to
production agriculture by taking advantage of opportunities to connect farmers, the value chain, and
society in ways that are beyond present capabilities. The German-funded iGreen project, for example, is
working on location-based services and knowledge-sharing networks for combining distributed,
heterogeneous public and private information sources as steps toward future ICT systems (iGreen,
2011). Today, we are extremely close to having true CPS and control systems for measuring the “pulse”
of agricultural productivity on planet Earth.
v. Future of Agricultural Mechanisation Seems Promising
With the involvement of digital technology, the future of agricultural mechanisation seems quite
promising.
With the digital revolution quickly transforming every major sector of the global economy, it is no
surprise the magnitude of impact this revolution is having in the world of agriculture.
Today, we see sophisticated technologies such as temperature and moisture sensors, robots, GPS
technology, precision agriculture, amongst others being used to enhance the productivity and
profitability of farmers across continents, as well as keep expensive assets, such as tractors, safe while
they work on the field, usually very far away from their owner’s line of sight.
Secure food system
Taking a close look at mechanisation specifically, so much is being done, technology wise, to ensure that
we are headed toward a secure food system even as our global population continues to skyrocket.
Companies such as Zenvus, Tro-Tro, Kitovu, ThriveAgric & Farmcrowdy are all enabling the success of
mechanisation one way or another through their offerings which are largely targeted at smallholder
farmers.
At Hello Tractor, for instance, we use technologies such as IoT, machine learning, and artificial
intelligence to power our farm equipment sharing application that connects tractor owners and
smallholder farmers in emerging markets.
Access to tractor services for smallholder farmers
Our solution not only grants tractor owners the ability to track their tractor and expand their tractors’
serviceable geography to grow their businesses, but also creates equitable access to tractor services for
smallholder farmers, allowing them to be more productive on the farm, earn more and improve their
livelihoods.
As much as we have been successful in capturing 75% of all commercial tractor sales in Nigeria and
scaling up our business into new markets across Africa and Asia, we are constantly thinking through
ways by which we can make our technology offering more robust and relevant for the agriculture sector
even as it continues to evolve.
Investing in agriculture
We recently partnered with IBM to pilot an advanced analytics tool that is envisioned to enable financial
institutions be more involved in investing in agriculture as that is one of the major challenges we
identified to be limiting the ample supply of tractors across most emerging markets.
Farmers having access to quality information and tools that make farming easier means more money in
their pockets and more food produced in a sustainable way
By doing this, we are adding value to the ecosystem and enabling the sustainability of mechanised
agriculture which is a very important factor that companies creating new technologies for
mechanisation need to keep in mind if the world is going to be able to feed itself by 2050.
Challenges
Asides from the limited availability of machinery which poses a challenge to mechanised farming across
emerging markets, there are other challenges that need to be tackled to ensure that modern tools being
rolled into the market have maximum impact. Such challenges include; smallholder farmers education
and technology adoption, a lack of supportive policies that facilitate mechanization, as well as the high
cost of services due to a lack of proper route planning.
With the involvement of digital technology, the future of agricultural mechanisation seems quite
promising. Farmers having access to quality information and tools that make farming easier means more
money in their pockets and more food produced in a sustainable way. Contractors having access to
critical data that allows them to make informed decisions means more profits and faster growing
businesses.
However, the challenges impeding the maximum impactfulness of these new technologies must first be
addressed to allow for the most productive farming future.
vi.
Farm Mechanisation in the USA
Farming in the US has gone through a radical change especially in the 20th century. Mechanisation of
farms has spurred the power revolution in the agricultural industry. A great combination of technology
and American ingenuity, these dazzling machines are not just nifty but also represent the American
dream, of growth and development. They have brought in agility and increase in efficiency of the farms.
These technological advancements and scientific leaps in agricultural tools and techniques have helped
American farms to reach heights of productivity with cost efficiency. The shift from hand and animal
power such as the use of horses and mules to the arrival of motor power, farm implements like tractors
and harvesters have changed the face of agricultural farming in the USA.
Today, Farm Mechanisation in the US is acknowledged by mechanised tractors, cultivators, harvesters
and planters. Tractor powered plows, planters, cultivators and harvesters are celebrated by farmers as
these have cut short the labour hours for production and cultivation reducing them by half. Changing
the farmers lives forever some of the greatest farm implements are:
TRACTOR: The United States bid farewell to the horse drawn era of farming and embraced the
groundbreaking tractor to increase farm productivity. With advanced technology, the tractors have
covered a lot more ground from being gas powered to a vision of driverless tractors. Today the Tractors
are tough, robust and a lot more dependable. Offering plenty of power, these are versatile machines
capable of performing multifarious functions. With several options available from heavy duty load
carriers to those for ground maintenance and livestock operations, they are the farmer’s best friends for
all seasons.
HARVESTER: This dextrous machine is used to harvest variety of grain crops like wheat, oats and corn.
They are like tractors but dedicated to harvesting rather than cultivation or planting. With a couple of
improvisations, this machine now comes with grain platforms and unloading corn crib for better
productivity. Modern versions are highly efficient with cutting edge technology allowing advanced
control and monitoring. They make threshing, separating as well as cleaning very cool and easy.
PLOWS: This farm implement is used for initial cultivation to loosen the soil in preparation for sowing
seed or planting by breaking the soil and cutting a furrow. Numerous advances later, the plow has made
a shift from a single plow to two or more plows fastened together, yielding more productivity for the
same amount of effort. And, with the help of tractors, the pulling of the plows was made easier. Some of
the major plows used in the United States are the chisel plows, breaking/bottom plows and cultivating
plows.
There are a whole set of other machine and implements that are relevant to agricultural farming in the
United States including rotary tillers, mowers, grading machines, tipping trailer, hay handler, grain
auger, grain dryer, hay balers and many more that have changed the whole game when it comes to
farming.
Advantages of Farm Mechanization
Machines can do a lot of the things that humans can only dream of and this move towards
mechanisation, especially in agriculture, is built to last. Therefore it’s great to understand the good that
is coming out of it. Some of the advantages that it has brought with it is:
Increase in production: It’s no secret that use of farm implements would be directly proportional to the
increase in productivity, output and speed of the work. Increased farm productivity leads to increased
margins. Substituting manual labour and animal power has considerably reduced the efforts of the
farmers whereby the machine is now doing everything all day without any rest.
Lower cost of work: Mechanisation has increased the yield of land per unit of area, but at what cost?
Initial cost of the machine plus the cost of a tank of the fuel, with minimum utilisation of human labour.
What’s even better is when the farmers make the choice to buy these implements on rent, this even
further reduces the cost of production.
Reduction in the production time: When the machines do all the work and reduce human labour, it
saves plenty of time. Machines do a great job on the field giving results quickly and rapidly. A lot of work
is done with less manual labour, saving costs and allowing the workers to be employed somewhere else.
Better Farm Management: Time saved in production gives the farmer ample time to better manage the
farms. With mechanisation farmers can not only manage their farms better but they can also tend to
larger area of farm land. This has led to higher efficiency and production capacity.
Increase in the status of the farmers: Farmers are able to produce more; therefore they’re able to profit
more. They are not just able to increase their farm income, they are now able to enjoy a better lifestyle
and avoid the tedious, dreary and dangerous work that is a result of working with knives, pests and
diggers.
Trends in agricultural technology are rapidly advancing agricultural industry which is emancipating and
helping the agricultural farmers in innumerable ways. In order to enhance the positive repercussions of
mechanisation, farmers have now started to hire these machines on rent. Farm equipment rental in USA
is nothing new but it’s still extremely relevant because of the benefits that reap out of it.
Farm equipment rental apps like FarmEase have made the process easier for farmers by helping them
connect to the renters offering agricultural machinery at extremely favourable prices for as long as one
needs. Renting farm machinery is a very affordable and practical option. It gives the farmers access to a
large inventory of farm equipment and they can rent whenever whatever is needed. Giving farmers a
leading edge in terms of technology and cost efficiency, Farmease is the way for the future optimizing
productivity and profitability. We at FarmEase serve you with nothing but the best.
Conclusion
Agricultural mechanization will be a key factor to achieving our TFP goals and feeding a growing planet.
Looking ahead, agricultural machines will become data-rich sensing and monitoring systems that can
map the performance of both machines and the environment they work on with precision resolution
and accuracy, and this capability will unlock levels of information about production agriculture that were
heretofore unavailable.
References
Harsh Aditya | Mechanization of Agriculture: Meaning, Benefits and Progress | economicsdiscussion.net
| Retrieved on 24.02.2020 from
http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/india/farming/mechanization-of-agriculture-meaning-benefitsand-progress/21655
Agricultural Mechanization – An Overview | sciencedirect.com |Retrieved on 24.02.2020 from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/agricultural-mechanizatio
Sep 2011 |The Impact of Mechanization on Agriculture | nae.edu | Retrieved on 24.02.2020 from
https://www.nae.edu/52645/The-Impact-of-Mechanization-on-Agriculture
Jehiel Oliver, Oct 2019 | Future of agricultural mechanisation seems promising | futurefarming.com |
Retrieved on 24.02.2020 from
https://www.futurefarming.com/Machinery/Articles/2019/10/Future-of-agricultural-mechanisationseems-promising-485287E/
Feb 2020 | Farm Mechanisation in the USA | blog.farmease.app | Retrieved on 24.02.2020 from
https://blog.farmease.app/farm-mechanisation-in-the-usa/