MECHANIZATION IN AGRICULTURE

1 CHC Custom Hiring Centre for Farming machines

He is among 1,205 farmers spread across Madhya Pradesh who are

running custom hiring centers (CHCs) which rent out machinery to
small and marginal farmers and employ rural youth who manage these
centers all day.
The cost? Rs25 lakh to set up one centre, which will get a Rs10 lakh
government subsidy. However, as Madhya Pradesh has showed, the
social benefits of the scheme have far outweighed the costs.
Machinery available for hire has reduced manual labour and lowered
the cost of cultivation, which has gone up due to a labour shortage.
Farmers renting equipment have reported yields rising by around 20%
Fragmented farm holdings mean individual ownership of machinery is
unviable for small farmers
Every year, nearly 4.5 lakh farm hands move out of rural areas (in
Madhya Pradesh) in search of skilled or unskilled work
For instance, 85% of farm holdings in India belong to small and
marginal farmers cultivating less than two hectares. 0
In states like PunjabIndias most mechanized state with double the
number of tractors it needsindividual ownership of machinery has
not only led to higher cost of production and lower net income to
farmers, but also rising debt among farm households.
In comparison, Madhya Pradesh is promoting CHCs as a simple and
transparent way of renting farm equipment. Rural youth under 40
years with an undergraduate degree can apply for a grant under the
scheme. While agricultural graduates are preferred, final applicants are
selected through a lottery. The subsidy is limited to 40% of the cost of
a centre or Rs10 lakh. Applicants have to place a margin money of Rs5
lakh and the rest is financed by bank loans.
The applicant has to purchase a mandatory set of equipment required
for farm activities from ploughing to harvesting. Each centre serves
200-300 farmers within a radius of less than 10km.
The thresher worked for nearly 500 hours harvesting the winter wheat
crop in April at a rental of Rs700 per hour. In less than a year, Parmar
earned over Rs3 lakh. He has employed two people at a salary of
Rs5,000 per month, and is planning to buy a crop reaper cum binder
which costs Rs3.5 lakh.
 While 286 CHCs were set up in the first year of the scheme (2012-13),
the number rose to 444 in 2014-15 and 475 in 2015-16. This year, the
state has set a target of 612 centres.
different states have followed different modelswhile in Andhra
Pradesh, CHCs are run by informal groups of farmers who find it
difficult to access bank credit, in Punjab, CHCs are run by cooperative
societies as an added service.
The centre in 2016-17 allocated Rs160 crore to states under the Sub-
Mission on Agricultural Mechanization, but the unspent balance was as
high as Rs103 crore by the end of March this year, shows data from the
agriculture ministry.
The state is also implementing a scheme called Yantradoot where 200
villages are adopted every year and farmers get to see first-hand how
farm mechanization can boost productivity, save labour costs and even
help fight climate change.
In one season, a combined harvester can do a business of Rs7 lakh and
I can recoup the investment in three years
In the rush to mechanize farm operations, the private sector too isnt
far behind. According to a report published in July by lobby group Ficci
and the German Agribusiness Alliance, leading farm equipment
manufacturers such as Mahindra and Mahindra, TAFE, Escorts and John
Deere are trying out different models of custom hiring.
Farmers who used the combined harvesters took 45 minutes to
harvest, thresh and pack wheat in an acre, which otherwise takes a
week and 15 labour days,
Link : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/GUjViqjuiAACb6e4lS5g7M/A-quiet-
revolution-in-farm-mechanization.html
Date: 16 Sep 2016
TYPES OF MECHANIZATION
A. AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION involves the design, manufacture,
distribution, use and servicing of all types of agricultural tools,
equipment and machines. It includes three main power sources:
human, animal and mechanical with special emphasis on mechanical
(tractive power).
B. FARM MECHANIZATION: is technically equivalent to agricultural
mechanization but refers to only those activities normally occurring
inside the boundaries of the farm unit or at the farm unit level
(example: village, community, co-operatives etc.).
1) Improved irrigation facility in the country.

2) Introduction of high yielding varieties of seeds.

3) Introduction of high dose of fertilizers and pesticides for different crops.

4) Introduction of new crops in different parts of the country.

5) Multiple cropping system and intensive cultivation followed in different

parts of the country.
C. TRACTORIZATION: refers to the application of any size tractor to
activities associated with agriculture.
D. MOTORIZATION: refers to the application of all types of mechanical
motors or engines, regardless of energy source, to activities related to
agriculture.
E. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS: are devices attached to, pulled behind,
pushed, or otherwise used with human, animal or mechanical power
source to carry out an agricultural operation.
F. AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY: is a general term used to describe tractors,
combines, implements, machines and any other device more
sophisticated than hand tools which are animal or mechanically
powered.
G. AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT: generally, refers to stationary mechanical
devices such as irrigation pump-set.

Link: http://ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=473
The Startups finalists are:
Auxin Crop Consultants: an agriculture advisory startup, enables farmers to
post crop visual symptoms through a mobile application and get customised
advisory support from the experts. They envisage creating big data for
agriculture which can be used for better decision making and prediction by
agribusinesses and farmers.
Cheermap Foods: a hardware product/service based startup which makes a
variety of authentic and tasteful Indian tea (chai) available outside of homes
in a convenient manner.
Flybird Innovations: an affordable irrigation technology producer for small
and marginal farmers. Their smart irrigation controllers help increase farm
productivity by regulating precise water flow by sensing soil moisture,
temperature and humidity.
Inner Being Wellness: a food innovation company offering new and
innovative products like flour, flakes,noodles, vermicelli, pasta, bread made
from quinoa. These products are gluten free, low calorie and reduces the
lifestyle disorders like high cholesterol, diabetes, gluten allergies, indigestion
and more
Innovation Agro: a hyperlocal information platform using a combination of
community-based precision farming and supply chain analytics for farmers to
improve yield and market their produce.
Karna Candy: a company aiming to revolutionise the functional candies
market in India. Karna has developed innovative, natural and completely
vegetarian range of candies tailored to Indian consumer taste/palette.
Kinetic Machines: a technology company aiming to address the acute labor
shortage problem in farming. It is developing sustainable farm mechanisation
solutions by introducing bio-mimicking to improve the human capacity in
farming.
Living Greens Organics: one of the first urban farming companies in India to
make specialised rooftop organic farming solutions. Living Greens offers
products and services such as portable roof farms, organic input kits and
green cover for exposed walls.
The programme kicks off with a three-day workshop next week in Hyderabad
where the start-ups will learn about financial and business modeling, and
sales and marketing from industry experts. On the final day they will have
one-on-one interaction with mentors from the investment and agribusiness
industries. The next three-months they will develop their businesses further
with the help of support from CIIE, NAARM and other partnering
organisations including Asian Development Bank and German development
organisation Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ),
which have both pledged their support to the programme.
The start-ups will have regular interactions with their mentors and CIIEs
network during this period, according to Patel.