In this article we will discuss about:- 1. Meaning of Mechanisation 2. Scope of Mechanisation 3. Causes for Slow Progress 4. Types of Farm Machines 5. Power Requirements of the Farm 6. Productivity Vs. Mechanisation 7. Agro-Industries Corporations 8. Benefits.
Meaning of Mechanisation:
Farm mechanisation is a term used in a very wide 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 threshing but also includes power lifts for irrigation, trucks for haulage of farm produce, processing machines, crushing sugarcane, grinding and mixing feed, spraying implements against pests and diseases, 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, “mechanisation of agriculture and farming process connotes application of machine power to work on land, usually performed by bullocks, horses and other drought animals or by human labour.”
It chiefly consists in either replacing, or assisting or doing away with both the animal and human labour in farming by mechanical power wherever possible. This necessary implies a change in the economic and cost structure of farms, in as much as the ratio of capital to labour increases enormously and the proportion of different items of cost per unit of production undergoes a revolutionary change.
Mechanisation 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 by power supplying machines, it is termed as complete.
In western countries notably in North American continent, mechanisation of agriculture is more or less complete. This has been necessary because of the shortage and high cost of farm labour. Complete mechanisation on a vast scale has been adopted in Russia as a means to large-scale exploitation of land and increased production therefrom, in spite of the fact that before the Sovietisation of Russia the whole agricultural structure of the country was on the basis of peasant farming.
During World War II the United Kingdom was forced, on account of man-power shortage, to adopt partial mechanisation on a large scale in order not only to keep up production, but also to expand production considerably in the few instances. Mechanisation has also been resorted to in Australia, Brazil and Canada where there is “low pressure of population, scarcity of labour and high wage level.” Denmark, France, West Germany, Austria, Sweden and Netherlands have also adopted mechanized farming.
But in countries like China, India, greater part of Asia, Africa and South America, the mechanisation has progressed to a very limited scale due to abundant supply of the man and animal power, subdivision of holdings, lack of fuel-power and the poverty of the masses. Whereas in France and Denmark, farms were well equipped with agricultural machinery and all work—right from sowing, ploughing to harvesting—is done by machinery.
Broadly speaking, mechanisation of agriculture has two forms, connected with the farm jobs, viz., jobs requiring traction work, i.e., mobile mechanisation. It attempts to replace animal power on which agriculture has been based for many centuries, mobile mechanisation needs the use of machines for such jobs as pulling and drawing efforts, e.g. ploughing, and tillage operations like harrowing, levelling, rolling, seeding, harvesting and hauling of produce.
The other type is stationary type of mechanisation, which aims at reducing the drudgery of certain operations which have to be performed either by human labour or combined effort of human beings and animals such as lifting water for irrigation, threshing, winnowing, bagging, crushing sugarcane, grinding and mixing live-stock feed, hulling rice and salting, maize cobs. These jobs can be performed by machines.
Scope of Mechanisation in India:
Though the prospectus for wholesale mechanisation of agriculture are not very bright in India, yet partial mechanisation in some respects and complete mechanisation in other respects is possible in the following circumstances:
(a) To get timely operations done on the field- machines may be used, otherwise the crop yield may be small if sowing is not done in right time.
(b) To intensify multiple cropping and harvesting operations, use of suitable machine is important.
(c) To meet labour shortages- in areas where agriculture is done round the year, use of machinery is preferred.
(d) To undertake costly operations which otherwise would be difficult to perform.
(e) To take up more thorough work- as in ploughing and harrowing, machines would be more beneficial than human or animal labour.
However, the following fields of agricultural activity are the logical domain of mechanisation in India, where manual methods would be insufficient and expensive:
1. Reclamation of lands infested with deep rooted weeds and grasses like kans, hadriali, and doob by deep ploughing with the help of tractor-driven implements.
2. Land improvements by land-levelling and grading with the help of bulldozers and other heavy machines.
3. Construction of dams and reservoirs, soil and water conservation works such as contouring, terracing, bunding to check the menace of soil erosion.
4. Jungle clearance and opening up virgin lands for cultivation.
5. Deep ploughing, chiseling, more drainings, and other operation like lifting water from great depths in the wells.
6. Making roads on the farms, hauling farm produce, for processing of farm produce such as rice hulling, oil extraction, sugarcane crushing and decorticating of the groundnuts, plant protection measures like spraying, dusting and fumigation.
7. Large co-operative farms.
8. For ploughing of clayey soils, that are difficult to handle when the time for preparation between crops, or after heavy monsoon rains and before sowing, is too short for effective results by bullock driven implements.
9. Intensive and extensive cultivation in sparsely populated areas.
10. Big farmers holding of more than 30 acres of land.
The use of improved and land implements and bullock-drawn machines like mauled-board plough, cultivators, seed-drills, reapers, has a great scope in Indian agriculture. Their increased use is sure to add to the quick harvesting of crops, making land available after paddy for producing peas and gram, hot weather cultivation after rabi harvest, raising early forage crops or green manure on fields ploughed during summer, quick preparation of seed bed and rapid harvest on vegetable farms, deeper cultivation in sugar-cane. In other words, it will add to the increased production by better farm work and timely cultural operations.
Causes for Slow Progress of Mechanisation:
Large scale use of machines in agricultural operations has so far not been very satisfactory for various factors, viz.:
(i) Holdings of majority of the agriculturists are very small, irregular in shape and uneconomic. More than 50 per cent are below 1 hectare. Tractors can be used economically only when the area commanded is at least over 40 hectares. In order to bring farms upto the standards of America and other European countries, the average area of cultivable land allotted per tractor of 20 to 60 horse power, should be between 70 and 80 hectares.
For every plot of 200 to 240 acres, 3 to 4 tractors are required and for every plot of 400 to 600 acres; 5 to 7 tractors would be required. Further, as the size of plot increases, smaller number of tractors would be needed.
(ii) There is abundant human labour lying idle in the villages. Agricultural labourers are employed on an average for 191 days only in a year; for the rest of the year they are unemployed. Hence, the use of farm machines might aggravate the seriousness of the situation further, unless there is some other source of livelihood.
(iii) The machines are very costly. “The introduction of large scale machinery in family operated farms is prohibited by its high cost in relation to the value of the capital that a farmer can accumulate on the typical small farm of the region. Even a small tractor may be worth five or ten years’ wages of the cultivator. He could never pay for it out of the value of one-third more or less, of his product that he sells”.
(iv) There is an acute shortage of kerosene, petroleum and diesel oil. These need to be imported from abroad at a high cost and this leads to a heavy drain on foreign exchange reserves.
(v) There is not only scarcity of machines, there is also a lack of mechanical skill in the country. The farmers are not aware of the use of even simple mechanical appliances because as yet no effective demonstrations by agriculture departments have made their way in the field.
(vi) There is inadequacy of the servicing stations, workshops, fuel supply stations and the supply of spare parts is quite insufficient beside it takes a long time to replace them. Repair and depreciation charges are also very heavy.
(vii) The machines that are got from abroad are either too heavy and cumbersome or too light for difficult Indian conditions. The result is that some machines do not operate with full efficiency and may even damage the soil structure.
Moore has rightly observed, “A deterrent to mechanisation in many tropical regions is the lack of understanding on the part of people how to select, operate and maintain machinery at high level of efficiency. To meet all the machine repairs and difficulties that arise in the normal operation of farm machinery requires considerable training and understanding. Many practically new articles are lying idle throughout. The trailers, broken and unused, because they were attached to too heavy tractors; on the other hand, many new implements are unused because the farmer has insufficient power”.
There are practical difficulties in the way of introduction of the machines on the farms.
Some of these can be removed:
First, the Government should provide credit facilities to those farmers who are willing to purchase the machinery individually.
Secondly, joint farming societies may be developed to serve as machinery co-operatives in the different States.
Thirdly, Machine Stations of the type of M.T.S., or U.S.S.R may be developed in different parts to give the tractors and servicing facilities to the cultivators on subsidised rates.
Fourthly, cheaper types of smaller machines suitable for Indian conditions should be evolved. These would help the labourer to perform his task more efficiently rather than displace him. In this connection we would do well to remember what F.A.O. Development Paper has remarked; “Mechanisation should not be introduced in a hurry, or on a too large scale. To be successful, it should be gradually expanded and kept within proficiency standards of those who operate it”.
Special studies should be made of the need for tractor drawn ploughs or other tillage implements, with a view to procurement and use; (i) Where the soil areas will yield far greater increases in food production than is possible with other tillage implements, and where the cultivators have the ability, willingness and organisation to make effective use of the implements without significant subsidy beyond loans; (ii) Where neglected and compacted soils of derelict village commons can be brought into use; and (iii) Where new land development requires heavy initial ploughing or earth moving. Even scarce foreign exchange should be allocated for such machines where the benefits are very substantial”.
At the outset, it might appear that the scheme of overall mechanisation is not feasible under the present agrarian structure in India, for agricultural sector may not presently invest huge sum of money and it would be difficult to create big farms required for mechanised agriculture compulsorily.
Therefore, the scheme should be extended gradually on the following lines:
(i) Complete mechanization should first be extended to the State farms.
(ii) The vast sub-marginal newly reclaimed areas should be brought under mechanised mechanisation.
(iii) It should be extended over to such lands where co-operative joint farming societies have been formed.
(iv) It should also be extended to the old co-operative farm which have enough areas in compact block and have enough scope for mechanisation of agriculture.
(v) Private big farmers should be induced to adopt mechanisation, “for the use of more efficient equipment is one of the principal ways by which productivity per man and per acre, and, hence, living standards can be raised”.
In conclusion, it may be said that mechanised agriculture is primarily associated with grain farming of an intense nature in Western countries. It has resulted in notable geographic shift towards relatively level topography, particularly to cheap land of low rainfall in Canada, Australia, Argentina and the western parts of U.S.A., which could not be cultivated economically under more laborious methods. Such geographic shifts would be desirable in India where there are lakhs of acres of relatively level culturable wastelands.
Besides, mechanization can be profitably adopted for the construction of country roads, drainage, and irrigation channels, development of underground water resources, and land reclamation. Of course, the types of machines that will be needed will depend on the nature of the work for which they are to be used.
Development of wastelands will require rather heavy types of tractors while usable lands will need lighter types. In this connection we may quote Lamartine and Wariner- “If the first era of agricultural machinery was characterised by the size, the second era on which we are entering appears to be devoted to evolving small machines, for the small man.”
Hence, for the land development and for annual ploughing on large estate, the tractor is most suitable while stationary oil engines can be used for sinking bore holes, and for water lifting. “Left to its own devices, agriculture is insufficient….. It leaves largely unsolved problems of crop failure and famine. When linked up with industry through mechanisation, it becomes highly efficient, it’s per man productivity rising to amazing heights”.
Types of Farm Machines:
Invention of new machines has widened their scope to operations which hitherto could be performed by hand or manual labour only. The new trend in manufacturing tractors and agricultural machines is to make them more adaptable on small farms and conventional for small pockets. Their efficiency is increasing resulting in greater economies in operation and saving of money in comparison to manual labour.
Some of the most used agricultural machines are:
(i) Tractor ploughing dispenses with the wooden plough of yore and the need for drought animals for cultivation of land.
(ii) The combined drill performs both sets of operations of sowing the seed and putting the fertilizer simultaneously.
(iii) The combined harvester simplifies the work of reaping and threshing into a joint process and renders obsolete the use of sickle, the pitchfork and scoopshovel.
(iv) Potato harvester digs, gathers, grades, sacks, weighs and delivers the potato to a waiting truck with an estimated saving of 50 dollars a day or more over the old way of handling the crop.
(v) The experimental planter opens the bed, plants seeds and places fertilizer all at one time. This considerably saves the quantity of fertilizer.
(vi) The cotton picker extracts lint-cotton from the open balls.
(vii) The sugarcane harvester cuts the cane and loads it at a speed of 7 or 8 mounds an hour with an estimated saving of 1/2 to 1/3 of the land harvest labour.
(viii) Oil engines and electric pumps are used for irrigation purposes.
(ix) Aeroplanes are used for dusting and spraying crops against pests and diseases.
Now improved machinery is available for seed bed preparation. Various designs of low cost hand operated sprayers and dusters are available for plant protection. Spraying on various crops has become common. Weed control in irrigated and rain fed agriculture particularly during the Kharif is a serious problem. The khurpi is the most important, hand hoe for removal of weeds but it takes much time.
Now use of long handle wheel hoe is available. It reduces the time for weeding. Traditionally, threshing has been achieved by bullock trampling. The traditional threshing process has been gradually replaced by power thresher operated by engine or electric motor. More than 2.5 lakh power threshers are introduced every year.
Plant setting, vegetable and small fruit production hedge demolition and drainage operations, tractor spraying of the insecticides, cotton picking and even some of the household work of the farmer’s families have been increasingly mechanised in the West. The lorries and the railways, the system of elevators and conveyers have come into general use for transport, marketing and storage of farm products and livestock.
In modern agriculture machines are being increasingly employed in one way or another in almost all farming operations ranging from breaking up the soil to the marketing and the sale of the produce of the farm. This is made possible largely to extension of electricity in the countryside, manufacture of agricultural machinery suitable for farms in varying climatic and geographic circumstances and the dispersion of instruction in technical and rural engineering at the agricultural schools.
Electricity is used for working of such machines as feed grinders, ensilage cutters, seed cleaning machinery and milking machines and also to furnish lights and power in the farm-households and the farm buildings.
Power Requirements of the Farm:
Laying down the criterion for the use of machines in agriculture. Danson remarks that, “in countries where machines are cheap while labour is expensive, and moreover, of a type qualified to understand and care for them, a free use of machines is indicated and the introduction of labour during implements will generally result in a direct saving of outlay- even if it does not, the additional expense is so small and the need of economy in labour so great that its use is economical”.
If we apply this criterion to India, we find the machines are expensive as they are not manufactured in the country. Fuel is costly. Labour is cheap and unskillful in the use and care of machines. It follows that the extent to which the labour saving device is an economy it is much more limited here than in U.S.A. or other Western countries.
However, there can be no two opinions on the urgency of mechanical help for increasing production where it creates further employment or does not compete with the bullock and human labour.
Power is required on the farm for performing two kinds of jobs:
(i) First, traction work requiring pulling or drawing efforts such as ploughing and land preparation, seedling, inter-culture, harvesting, etc. and also hauling.
(ii) Second, stationary work such as water-lifting, threshing, sugarcane crushing, etc.
The available sources of power on the farm are domestic animals, heat engines and electric power. While electric power, which is at present available on a very limited scale, is confined entirely to stationary work, animal power and heat engines have proved applicable for both traction and stationary work. In India, the power required for agricultural operations is mostly supplied by annual power and human hand.
Productivity Vs. Mechanisation:
The Expert Working Group constituted by the CIAE in September, 1984 made the following observations in respect of productivity as influenced by mechanisation.
The panel said it was possible to achieve:
(i) Five to ten per cent improvement in yields by proper and timely seedbed preparation.
(ii) Ten to twenty per cent improvement in yields by using seed-cum fertilizer drills.
(iii) Five to thirty per cent improvements in yields through control of weeds by use of interculture tools, sprayers and dusters.
(iv) Four to five per cent saving through timely and efficient harvesting and threshing operations.
During post-harvest operations, the current eight to ten per cent loss of stored foodgrains can be saved by improved storage practices. A modern rice mill yields 2.5 per cent more from raw paddy over shellers and 5.6 per cent over huller mills. The increase was 0.8 and 1.6 per cent respectively for parboiled rice. Dal recovery can be improved by 10 to 20 per cent by the adoption of efficient processes and improved equipment.
The loss of water from field courses alone is 20 per cent of the water delivered at the canal outlets. Additional losses from seepage and deep percolation below the coal zone occur through improper water application. Lining of water courses and use of sprinklers can improve the availability of water.
Losses can also be minimised though farm mechanisation. A sound mechanisation policy, proper planning and implementation have to be given due importance. There is no short cut for using the appropriate technologies and a package of improved implements. Increased use of tractors and improved bullock drawn tool carriers can command a larger area for timely seedbed operation and sowing of seeds. Weeding with improved weeders can help effective interculture operations.
Agro-Industries Corporations:
There are 17 State Agro-Industries Corporations. In the initial stages, all these Corporations concentrated mainly on distribution of tractors, power tillers, pump-sets and other items of agricultural machinery on cash and hire purchase basis and supply of other agricultural inputs.
They have diversified their activities to other fields like manufacture of agricultural implements and machinery, spare parts for tractors, processing of fruits and vegetable products, setting up of cattle and poultry feed plants, oil extraction plants, compost plants, for the manufacture of organic manures, maize milling complex, NPK granulated fertiliser manufacturing plants, fisheries project and processing of fish products, nylon net manufacturing plants for promoting fishing industry, project on agricultural aviation, pesticides formulated plants, meat processing plants, revitalisation of wells, etc.
Besides distribution of agricultural machinery, the Corporations have also undertaken various other commercial activities. The Maharashtra Corporation has set up a Cattle Feed Factory at Gurgaon and a Poultry Feed Factory at Pimpri. It has also set up plants for the manufacture of superphosphate and NPK granular fertilizer at Rasayani. The Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Mysore Corporations have given particular attention to exploitation of ground water.
Land levelling and land reclamation work has been taken up by Corporations in Bihar, Rajasthan and Kerala. The Karnataka, Assam and U.P., Corporations have taken up distribution of fertilizers and other inputs to farmers in their States at reasonable prices. Fruit processing is another field of activity entered into by the Corporations in Assam, U.P., and Andhra Pradesh.
The Kerala Corporation has started manufacture of power tillers, Seventeen Agro-Industries Corporations were set up with the equity participation of Government of India. In addition to these, governments of Manipur and Pondicherry have set-up their own state Agro-Industries Corporations without any participation of Government of India.
Benefits of Mechanisation:
(i) It Increases Production:
Mechanisation 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 team controlled three-horse power, when given a medium-sized crawler tractor controlled between 20 to 30 horse power. His output, therefore, went up in the ratio of about 8 : 1”. 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 minimized. 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. As a result while the volume of production has undergone considerable increase in U.S.A., the number of people engaged in agriculture has been reduced.
The average area of land per farm increased in U.S.A., from 136 acres in 1890 to 215 in 1950, while the number of workers per farm in the same period decreased from 2.0 to 1.6 which means that on a given area at a farm, there was a fall of 50% in the number of workers. A more recent and more spectacular development in mechanisation of agriculture has been brought in the U.S.S.R., where agricultural output increased four times that of 1913 and grain production alone increased by 70 per cent by 1960.
By 1965 Socialist competition, increased electrification and more machines were supposed to induce a 100% increase in the efficiency of agriculture labour in that country.
Availability of power for agricultural sector has increased during the plan period. It has been estimated that farm power in India is around 1.00 k.w. per hectare of which 10 per cent is from human labour, 25 per cent from animal power, 20 per cent from tractor and power tiller and the remaining 45 per cent from diesel engine and electric motors. Farm mechanisation has created very positive effect on agricultural economy of the country. The guiding principle for agricultural mechanisation is to maintain a socially desirable mix of human labour drought power and mechanical power.
A survey undertaken about the impact of mechanisation on yield of major crops, gross output per hectare or the output per man-day of human labour has revealed that there has been an increase in these on the mechanised farm than that on non-mechanised farms. The yield of sugarcane, wheat and paddy per hectare is increased by 25.6, 26.1 and 27.9% on the mechanised farms over the non-mechanised farms; while the gross output per hectare increased by 22.6% and that of output per man-day by 24.3%.
(ii) It Increases Efficiency and Per Man Productivity:
Mechanisation increases the efficiency of labour in agriculture and raises the agricultural production per worker. By its nature it reduces the quantum of labour required 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 had reduced labour requirements to 47 hours”.
“Before the World War I, it took about 35 man hours to grow and harvest an acre of corn- 15.2 hrs. 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 bushes 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 bushes of corn was 135, of wheat 106 and of oat 53; 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. 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.
(iii) Mechanisation 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 improvement in crops, livestock and machinery”.
Increase in the yield of crops, due to mechanisation of farms has been traced from 30 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.
(iv) Mechanisation Results in Lower Cost of Work:
It has been universally recognised that one of the methods of reducing unit costs is to enlarge the size of 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 mechanisation is resorted to. The cost of work and the capital outlay for power farming as compared to animal power is much less.
(v) It Brings in Other Improvements in Agricultural Technique:
It is notably in the sphere of irrigation, land reclamation and the prevention of soil erosion. The present day dependence on the monsoon as the only irrigator of crops in India can be obviated by a more scientific approach.
Besides ploughing by tractor reclaims more land and thereby extends the area under cultivation, as the tractor smoothens hillocks, fills in depressions and gullies and eradicates deep-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.
(vi) Contracts the Demand for Work Animals:
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 costs amount to little when machines are idle, whereas the cost of maintenance of drought animals remains more or less the same during both periods of working and idleness, because animals have to be fed and attended to whether they are doing work or not.
It is, therefore, advantageous to use tractors when a great deal of work has to be done in a short time or in highly specialised forms of agriculture characterised by comparatively short periods inactivity. On the other hand, employment of animals works out more economical when the work is spread evenly over the entire year.
(vii) It Leads to Commercial Agriculture:
Mechanisation has always resulted in a shift from ‘subsistence” or ‘peasant farming’ to ‘commercial agriculture’. This shift occurs mainly due to the need for more land and capital to be associated with each farmer in order to reap the full benefits of technology.
This in turn gives rise to two tendencies in the agricultural economy:
(a) Gradual replacement of domestic or family labour by commercial or capitalistic methods, and
(b) Search for international markets for agricultural produce.
(viii) It Modifies Social Structure in Rural Areas:
Mechanisation 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. Life becomes more beneficial and the standard of living rises. The pressure on land decreases and the status of the agriculturists improves.
(ix) It Releases Manpower for Non-Agricultural Purpose:
Since the mechanisation of agriculture results in the employment of lesser number of person on farms, surplus manpower may be available for other economic activities. In U.S.A. mechanisation has been responsible for the release of about 20 per cent of workers for non-agricultural purposes.
In irrigated areas and in area which suffer from shortage of labour as compared to requirements for proper cultivation of the available land, the labour so rendered surplus can be gainfully employed in bringing more land under cultivation or in introducing labour intensive crops in the farming pattern or in attending to operations like weeding, interculture and hot weather cultivation which were not attended to with the same intensiveness before mechanisation.
(x) It Increases Farm Income:
With the introduction of mechanisation in agriculture the farm income as well as the individual income increases. “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 to machine industry, and mechanisation and science render agriculture efficient, they create the very world in which this efficient agriculture can sell its bountiful crops”. Due to huge farm surpluses, the farm population gets sufficient savings potential to invest for capital formation.
(xi) It Results in Better Use of Land:
Mechanisation also results in better utilisation of agricultural lands, because “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”.
(xii) 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 culturable waste lands after reclaiming them for cultivation.
The recent pilot study conducted by the Government on the effect of introduction of tractors on agricultural production has pointed out that the average of 8 persons on a farm was neither surplus nor inadequate to the requirements. Labour rendered surplus by tractor is utilised to increase production through better and timely operations.
Besides, the surplus labour force is also absorbed in irrigation programme, construction of roads, houses and in technical know-how relating to mechanisation. Further, mechanisation itself will lead to demand for more coal, iron, and steel and more transport, as a result more employment opportunities will be created. “The welfare of agriculture is enhanced by industrial expansion just as the welfare of general society is improved by increasing efficiency in agriculture”.
The surplus cattle may also be used for transport purposes in the absence of motor trucks and good roads, and for harrowing and minor operations which are often performed less economically by tractor power. Further, “the gradual replacement of animal power by machines would result in a healthy dairying activity in which health and well-being of the cattle would be regarded as a matter of permanent importance”. Thus, mechanisation would not have any adverse effect on surplus of population.
The table given below shows the direct and indirect impact of mechanisation:
