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India is the largest manufacturer of tractors in the world, accounting for one-third of the global production. Yet farm mechanisation in India, especially in small farms, is still at a nascent stage.

This could be related to the average size of land-holding in India getting further and further fragmented.

According to the provisional agriculture census of 2010-11, holdings with less than 2 hectares operated area account for 84.97 per cent of the total number of holdings, and 44.31 per cent of total operated area in the country.

However, the last few years have seen the agricultural machinery industry developing inexpensive, small and medium-sized tractors for both the Indian market and small farmers in wealthy countries. The frugal engineering design of tractors and harvesters is custom-made to suit operations in vineyards and orchards.

Overall Impact

The use of farm animals for field work in small farms is becoming unattractive for various reasons. This includes high maintenance cost and limited working capacity with low speed. Farm mechanisation has helped bring about a significant improvement in agricultural productivity.

With mechanisation, the timely completion of operations has assumed a greater role in obtaining optimal yields from different crops.

Bullocks and buffaloes, for instance, can pull loads equivalent only to roughly about 10 per cent of their body weight. The traction machines, on the other hand, can produce a far higher output in a much shorter time-frame, depending on their size and rated capacity. A pair of bullocks, for instance, may take nearly five days to plough one hectare of land. In contrast, a tractor can do the same job in five hours.

Activities such as land preparation can be completed by small tractors in quarter the time it takes with bullocks, and much more cost-effectively, too. Besides, the use of machines helps reduce the drudgery of farm work that discourages educated youth from taking to farming.

In addition, these farmers use tractors for multiple applications besides farming: as water pumps, alternators and for haulage.

Mechanisation has clearly helped increase area under cultivation and cropping intensity while reducing input cost. Farmers also seek an opportunity to earn extra money through renting.

Mahindra launched a mini tractor, Yuvraj, costing about Rs 2.5 lakh for use by small and marginal farmers, defying the notion that small holdings do not need mechanisation solutions.

This provided farmers the much needed opportunity to graduate to a better means of productivity.

Better Accessibility

There are various issues faced by farmers with small land-holdings, such as weak financial status, lack of access to credit, shortage of custom hiring centres, and lack of promotion of appropriate crop-specific farm equipment.

The government has put a policy framework in place to tackle these issues and give a boost to mechanisation. .

For instance, the government has been giving subsidies for select mechanisation solutions.

The government and other organisations are enabling easy access to credit for farmers.

The Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd farm equipment sector, through a tie-up with Mahindra Finance, banks and NBFCs, has been making easy credit available to farmers to purchase tractors and farm mechanisation solutions on competitive terms.

Farmers are given easy access to tractors on hire through its Samriddhi centres. These centres help educate and counsel farmers on innovative farming technologies.

User-Friendly

Small farmers usually look for tractors and mechanisation solutions that are compact, easy to operate, fuel-efficient, low on maintenance, durable and dependable.

A compact tractor with a good road speed can also be used for agri and non-agri activities such as haulage (transportation of farm produce), inter-culture operations (all the lighter and finer operations carried out on the soil, between sowing and harvesting), power generation and water pumping.

For example the Mahindra Yuvraj 215 is a 15HP, fuel-efficient, compact tractor with low cost of ownership, making mechanisation as affordable as a pair of bullocks.

Yuvraj 215 is essentially used for agri and non-agri purposes. Mahindra Tractors also offer 12 implements specially developed for Yuvraj, which include rotavator, cultivator, seed drill, sprayers, reaper, thresher, alternator and water pumps. They were the first to develop 15HP tractors and mechanisation tools for farmers with small land-holdings.

The Yuvraj is used in orchards and vineyards due to smaller track width, compact size and easy maneuverability. In addition, it has side shift gears that enable the driver to perform farming activities with greater ease.

The government has taken several measures to make small land-holdings viable and assist farmers to adopt suitable technologies. It has been promoting and strengthening the use of agricultural mechanisation through training, testing and demonstration with the help of the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK).

The KVKs have been spreading farm mechanisation through custom hiring services, which can be used by small farmers.

(The author is chief of marketing, Mahindra & Mahindra (farm equipments sector.)

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