Groups of sugarcane cutters from the Marathwada region of Maharashtra who migrate to the sugar belt during the cane cutting season are not sure they would be back next season. Many mills and farmers are opting for mechanised harvesting and are purchasing sugarcane harvesters in big numbers, according to the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories.

But this is not the only case, with sugarcane.

Tillage, sowing, planting, harvesting, reaping, threshing, plant protection, inter cultivation and residue management in all crops are getting mechanised across States, with the Central government pushing for the mechanisation of farming in a big way. During the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, the Centre has released funds amounting to ₹1,591.02 crore, ₹2,502.69 crore and ₹2,101.93 crore, respectively, to the State governments towards farm mechanisation.

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“We have purchased our own sugarcane harvesting machine and it has helped in many ways. It has saved our money and energy. Now we can cut our sugarcane without waiting for cutters. Many times, sugarcane extract used to get reduced because of non-availability of cane cutters,” says Dilip Jadhav who has taken the benefit of the government’s scheme to purchase a sugarcane harvester. He insists that mechanisation of farming is key to make agriculture profitable.

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Benefits of mechanisation

The Ministry of Agriculture told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that impact evaluation studies highlight the overall positive impact of mechanisation on farming as it was reported that mechanisation helped in the overall increase of 17.9 per cent in productivity and 14.1 per cent in seed germination.

“Mechanisation also helped in saving nearly one-third of the time of operations, 30 per cent reduction in labour requirements, 11 per cent reduction in seed rate, 26.6 per cent reduction in weed instances, 22.4 per cent reduction in diesel consumption and 12.7 per cent reduction in fertiliser requirements,” the Ministry stated.

According to government data, 12,66,844 numbers of machines and equipment have been provided to farmers on subsidy; 14,182 custom hiring centres, 310 high-tech hubs and 13,080 farm machinery banks have been established across the States. To boost farm mechanisation, a special dedicated scheme, Sub Mission on Agriculture Mechanization (SMAM), has been introduced by the Centre under which subsidy is provided for the purchase of various types of agricultural equipment and machinery to the extent of 40-50 per cent.

What happens to labourers?

There are 263.1 million agricultural workers in the country, as per Census 2011, comprising 118.8 million cultivators and 144.3 million agricultural labourers.

“ No doubt mechanisation is the need of the hour but at the same time, there is a big question mark on the livelihood of farmworkers. Already many farm labourers are migrating to cities for work but a huge amount of people are still dependent on agriculture work”, says agriculture expert Sampatrao Pawar.

According to Anil Ghanwat of Shetkari Sanghatana, the agriculture sector could provide employment if farmers are given market and technology freedom.

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