Farm Mechanization:
India’s farm mechanisation journey, once dominated by tractors, is now witnessing a transformative shift. The focus is moving toward smart machinery, automation, and precision tools to meet modern agricultural demands.
- Farm Mechanization involves using machines like harvesters and modern implements to improve productivity, enhance efficiency, and reduce dependence on manual labour in farming operations.
- Precisions Agriculture utilizes GPS, IoT, AI, drones, and data analytics to optimize resource use (water, fertilizers, pesticides) based on soil and climate conditions.
- Drones are used for crop monitoring, pesticide spraying, and yield estimation. India accounts for 22% of global drone imports.
- The Drone Didi Scheme aims to provide 15,000 drones to women SHGs for rental services, boosting mechanization and rural employment.
- Driverless tractors and robotic harvesters perform tasks like seeding, spraying, and harvesting with minimal human input.
- Robots in agriculture have enabled automation in sowing, irrigation, weeding, and harvesting, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
- In India the overall farm mechanization level in India is around 47%. Punjab and Haryana have 40-45% mechanization, while Northeastern states have negligible adoption.
- Cereal crops like wheat and rice have approx 50-60% mechanization, while horticulture remains less mechanized.
- Globally, developed nations have over 90% mechanization, while underdeveloped regions, particularly Africa and South Asia, still depend on manual labor. China (60%) and Brazil (75%) lead among developing nations.
