Agriculture needs more automation to make it a lucrative business

The decline in the prices of agricultural machinery, thanks to the recent cut in goods and services tax (GST) from 12-18 per cent to 5 per cent, is expected to impart the much-needed impetus to mechanisation in Indian agriculture. Doing field work mechanically, rather than manually, is warranted not merely to lessen dependence on human labour, which is turning scarce due to unabated migration from rural areas, but more so to ensure greater precision in farm operations to boost productivity and profitability. It also mitigates drudgery in farm work, which is driving the rural youth away from farming. 

According to industry sources, the prices of tractors have plummeted by ₹40,000 to ₹60,000, depending on the horsepower range, as a result of lower GST. Power tillers have become cheaper by nearly ₹12,000. The machines being promoted to reduce the menace of stubble burning, such as the straw reaper, super seeder, and Happy seeder, have seen price cuts ranging from ₹10,000 to ₹20,000. The biggest fall — of over ₹1,87,000 — is in the cost of large-sized harvester-combines, used mostly by service providers for harvesting wheat and paddy.

 

The GST reforms are, in fact, not confined to farm machinery. They cover many inputs used in agriculture’s allied sectors like animal husbandry, fisheries, poultry, beekeeping, and agroforestry. These include biopesticides, biofertilisers, micronutrients, and solar-power devices used to run tubewells and perform other farm work. The equipment employed in building cold stores and other kinds of environment-controlled warehouses, as also in refrigerated commercial goods vehicles for transporting perishable farm produce, has also become cheaper.

 

These price cuts, coupled with liberal subsidies being offered by the Centre and state governments and easier access to institutional credit for purchasing farm machinery, have enhanced the affordability of these mechanical gadgets for farmers. The beneficiaries of this measure also include self-help groups, agri-startups, and custom-hiring centres, which rent out machines to farmers or perform the jobs on the farmers’ fields on contract. 

 

At present, less than 50 per cent of farm work in India is carried out through machines. This level of mechanisation compares poorly with 60 per cent in China, 75 per cent in Brazil, and as much as 95 per cent in the United States. Though India has also set a target of raising the level to 75 per cent, this is envisaged to be achieved in 25 years. Such a long wait is unwarranted for a measure that is rather urgently needed to make the country’s agriculture internationally competitive. Deployment of modern technology, which is critical to perform farm operations on time and with greater accuracy, holds the key to lift the overall efficiency of farming to bring it on a par with global standards.

 

The scale and nature of farm mechanisation varies widely across the country, depending largely on the type of crops and the kind of agronomic tasks to be undertaken. While in wheat farming 50-70 per cent of the work is usually performed mechanically, other crops lag far behind in this respect. Also, mechanisation is much higher in the agriculturally progressive north-western region, comprising Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, than in other parts of the country. It is almost negligible in the Northeast, where most farm work is carried out manually. Also, land preparation and crop-sowing operations are far more mechanised almost all over the country than other farm chores, such as weeding and inter-culture, although these operations, being highly labour-intensive, need mechanisation the most. Paddy transplanting and cotton picking, though laborious, are done mostly by hand even in the highly mechanised states like Punjab and Haryana.

 

The economic gains of agricultural mechanisation have been evaluated by various studies, and found to be fairly weighty. The results show that the expenses on costly inputs like seeds and fertilisers can be cut by 15-20 per cent by using appropriate machines to sow crops and apply plant nutrients. Besides, crop germination is generally 10-25 per cent higher when sowing is done through machines, placing the seeds in the soil at the right depth and equal spacing. The time taken to perform an operation mechanically is estimated to be 20 to 30 per cent less than when done with traditional means. The net returns from the use of all cash inputs, including seeds, fertilisers and plant protection chemicals, have been found to be much higher in mechanised farms.

 

The need now is to promote novel and state-of-the-art technologies, such as geospatial programming and artificial intelligence, to optimise farm productivity. The use of drones and satellite-based remote sensing has already begun for tasks like crop monitoring, pesticides spraying, and yield estimation. Further promotion of these technologies can transform agriculture into a truly knowledge-based and technology-driven lucrative business.

 

surinder.sud@gmail.com