Status of use of Modern Implements and Farm Machinery and Hand Tools

 

 

Indranil Biswas & Bikramjit Sinha

 

This section is an effort to understand recent changes relating to improved agricultural vis-à-vis hand tools which may have potential impact in the creation of new livelihood opportunity in rural India. It examines the status of export-import data and also the dissemination of new technical knowledge among farmers. Further, a brief introduction to state policies relating to tools and implements is presented. A brief deliberation on standards and certification of modern implements and hand tools may help our policy planners to make country’s comprehensive plan for future agri-mechanization, including creation of some new routes to job creation in rural areas. All the data used here are indicative, not exhaustive.

 

Introduction

Indian agriculture is as diverse as its people due to its varied agro-climatic features; it varies from the hilly and humid northeast to the plain and arid Rajasthan. Agricultural production in these diverse areas requires completely different types of farm implements (machines/tools). The land holding pattern is dominated by the small and marginal farmers (>60%). This pattern is expected to deteriorate further due to the ‘laws of inheritance’ common in India. This also demands different types of implements for different types of landholders, basically one type for small and marginal farmers and another for the medium and large farmers. The small and marginal farmers of India rely mostly on draught animals for their field operations, transport and agro-processing. The extent of area under the command of draught animals is estimated to be around 57%. Reduction of this area through farm mechanization with indigenous technologies would enhance the productivity of the small and marginal farmers and make them more sustainable. In subsequent issues of India S&T, specific instruments like balistic apparatus will be covered in detail.

 

Availability of information about new technology (NSSO, 2003):

For the rural areas, marketing of the agricultural tools is a big question. Around 40% of farmer households have problems in accessing information on modern farming technology (NSSO Report No. 499(59/33/2), 59th round, 2003). The most popular was ‘other progressive farmers’ with percentage of farmer households accessing information through the source as 16.7%, followed by input dealer (13.1%) and radio (13.0%).

 

 

 Fig 1: Different sources of information about agricultural tools in percentage

Source: NSSO report no. 499, 59th Round

 

Among various states percentage of farmer-households accessing information through ‘other progressive farmers’ was highest in Andhra Pradesh (34%), Gujarat (30%) and West Bengal (25%). In the case of accessing information through ‘input dealers’ it was highest for West Bengal (36%), Andhra Pradesh (30%) and Gujarat (24%). ‘Radio’ was highest in Jammu & Kashmir (36%), then Kerala (31%) and Assam (29%). The report also indicated that the two most popular sources, namely ‘other progressive farmers’ and ‘input dealer’ were contacted by the farmer households mainly on ‘need basis’ or ‘seasonally’.

Observation: In rural areas, dissemination of information regarding new advanced agricultural tools is mainly dispersed through progressive farmers to others, whereas the intervention of KVKs, extension workers, Government demonstrations is less effective. It affects the proper diffusion of technical knowledge. There is an urgent need to focus on information dissemination for spreading technical knowledge.

 

Credit and Finance for Farmers

After getting  information about the new equipment the next important thing is to get the credit to buy the tools because our farmers have low purchasing capacity. The Government provides incentives to farmers for modernization of agriculture which are linked to crop specific programmes operated by state governments. State governments may need to strengthen their extension machinery for providing information to the farmers.  Agricultural Policy resolution includes special emphasis for input support to poor farmers with small land holdings and especially for those in eastern, hilly regions, rain fed and drought prone areas. According to the report from NABARD, GoI set a target of Rs.1,75,000 crore credit flow to agriculture for 2006-07 against which disbursements by all agencies stood at Rs.2,03,296 crore, exceeding the target by 16 per cent. Commercial banks, co-operative banks and RRBs disbursed Rs.1, 40, 382 crore, Rs.42, 480 crore and Rs.20,434 crore achieving 118, 104 and 136 per cent of the targets, respectively. During the year, 83.50 lakh new farmers were brought under the institutional fold, 74.70 lakh fresh KCCs issued, 631 agri-clinics financed, debt relief of Rs.4,873.37 crore and Rs.673.90 crore provided to farmers in distress and in arrears, respectively. An amount of Rs. 460.06 crore to small/marginal farmers under one time settlement scheme was provided by banks. Banks also extended loans to the extent of Rs.73.41 crore to 27,810 farmers, to redeem their debts availed from informal sources. In some of the cases the subsidy is also available for the agricultural equipments. Agricultural equipments, namely tractor, power tiller, power threshers, sprinklers, drip irrigation sets, self propelled reapers, rotavators etc. are available on subsidy under Central Sector Plan Schemes. The subsidy is available to the farmers @ 25% of the cost of equipment subject to certain ceiling limits.

Observation: Very recently Govt. of India released a debt waiver scheme in 2008 for the welfare of poor farmers. This may have provided short term relief to the small and marginal farmers. But for long term gain we need to focus on capacity building of these farmers to sustain in adverse conditions with more credit solutions.

 

Major farm machinery training and testing institutes in India

The Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes (FMTTI) at Budni (M.P.), Hissar (Haryana), Garladinne (A.P.) and Bishwanath Chariali (Assam) established by the Government of India have been playing a vital role in promoting agricultural mechanization.
The types of tests undertaken by FMTTIs are as under: -

Commercial Tests for establishing performance characteristics of machines which are ready for commercial production. The following types of commercial tests are undertaken: Initial Commercial Tests on indigenous or imported proto-type machines ready for commercial production. Batch Test on machines, which have already undergone Initial Commercial Test and/or are being manufactured commercially in the country. Test in accordance with OECD Standard Test Code shall be undertaken on machines on the specific request of the manufacturer/applicant, exclusively for export purposes.

Confidential Tests are done for providing confidential information on the performance of machines, whether ready for commercial production or not, or to provide any special data that may be required by the manufacturer/applicant.

Standards: For wider acceptability and safety of equipments, various Indian Standards applicable for testing of different types of equipment have been published by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).  These are available at BIS headquarter at New Delhi and its regional offices at Kolkata, Chandigarh, Chennai, and Mumbai. The Indian Standards applicable for testing of different types of equipments are given in Table 1 in the Appendix. An online free catalog is also available on the BIS website for details of Standards.

Observation: The number of central farm machinery testing and training centre is small compared to the agricultural area of India. To cover up the vast pool of farmers, the outreach of the testing facilities needs  broaden, may be through creation of more centres. In fact, another gateway of job creation in rural India is by imparting training to some nodal rural persons about standards and giving them rights to certify the rural unorganized small agri-machinery and tools on reasonable payment basis. In this way we may think of including the large unorganized hand tool and agri-machinery industry into our organized system with proper safety measures and global acceptance.

 

Usage of Agricultural Implements in rural India (NSSO)

Even today, majority of Indian farmers have the tendency to use wooden plough rather than iron plough. On an average, 46 households are using wooden plough and 14 households are using iron plough in rural India per 100 households.

 

 

Fig 2: Number of different kind of plough owner in rural India

Source: NSSO Report No. 408, 1991-92

 

 

Fig 3: Number of different kind of pump user in rural India

Source: NSSO Report No. 408, 1991-92

 

Figure 3 clearly reveals that use of indigenous water lifting devices is much more than the use of mechanized pumps except in case of the large farmers.

In case of draught power also, use of carts outnumber the use of the mechanized tractor trolley. Further, it is apparent that intervention for mechanization of farm implements for marginal and small land holders is negligible in comparison to the large farmers. Total revenue earned from agricultural implements is less than 1% (http://icai.org/resource_file/11220p1190-94.pdf).

 

 

 Fig 4:  Users of mechanized agricultural implements in rural India

Source: NSSO Report No. 408, 1991-92

 

 

Agricultural Equipment market

Agriculture equipment market in India is dominated by private players like Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), TAFE, Escorts and PTL (Tractor manufactures association, 2004-05). These players not only do well in national market but also in international market.

The number of tractors per million hectares of gross cropped area is also increasing. Other advanced agricultural equipments taken together also show a similar increasing trend in their numbers during the same period. If we follow the World agricultural equipment market for the year 2006, we observe that India holds only 10% of the world agri-equipment market which is equivalent to $6.6 billion (Livestock Census 1992, 2003).

 

Some key statistics (United Nation ESCAP)

Presently Indian agriculture uses 30.00 lakh tractors, which effectively control 41.4 million ha (28.95% of cultivated area).Presently 1,17,200 power tillers in use, effectively control about 5.61 lakhs hectares. The present requirement is about 2.75 million additional tractors.  The average annual demand will be about 3.43 lakh tractors over the next 8 years. For intensive cropping, farm power availability needs to be increased from 1.35 kW/ha to 2 kW/ha by 2010, mainly due to increased use of tractors and power tillers. Approximate annual use (in hours) of a tractor is currently between 600-700 h/year.

 

Export-Import data for Agri- machinery

The following graphs show the export-import trends for soil machinery, dairy and milking machines and for the tractors over last 12 years. It is based on the values (in 1000 US$) of the particular item imported or exported as reported in FAOSTAT. These trends show the revenue generation pattern through the export of agriculture machinery.

 

 

 Fig 5: Import export value of soil machinery (all values in USD)

Source: http://faostat.fao.org/site/576

 

 

 Fig 6: Import export value of dairy and milking machinery (all values in USD)

Source: http://faostat.fao.org/site/576

 

 

 Fig 7: Import export value of Agricultural tractors (all values in USD)

Source: http://faostat.fao.org/site/576

 

Observation: More focus on R&D is needed to develop new mechanized agri-machinery that may help us to reduce import dependency especially in dairy and milking machinery sector.

 

Hand Tools

There are around 2,500 small-scale and tiny hand tools units in India. Amongst these around 350 units are concentrated in Jalandhar and more than 100 units in Ludhiana, and collectively they employ an estimated 25,000 workers. India's share is more than Rs. 5 billion in the global hand tool market. The manufactured hand tools includes spades, shovels, mattocks, etc; hand saws, files, rasps, pliers, etc; pipe cutters, spanners and wrenches, and goldsmith tools, vices and clamps, anvils, tools for turning, milling, grinding, etc; sharp edge tools, etc;. Hand Tool industry is an energy intensive industry with high scope for improving energy efficiency and energy saving.

 

List of Tool Room/Tool Design centres which create new paths for developing tools

 

These tool rooms and design centres serve the industries in:

a) Tool Design and Production: Design and Manufacture of dies and tools, moulds, jigs and fixtures, gauges and tool components etc. (upto 1 micron accuracy).

Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM).

Heat Treatment of all types of steels. Quality Control and Testing.

b) Training and Consultancy: Industry based long term training for tool & die makers. Short term training for managers & supervisors to upgrade their knowledge and skill.

Need based technical training for skilled workers/tool makers/machinists etc. Training in CNC technology, inspection, quality control testing etc.

 

 

State Government incentives to SSI related to agricultural implements and hand tools

 

 

Some key observations

Though different schemes and funds are available for the hand tool industry, still a large part of this industry falls under unorganized sector and is also neglected. A considerable number of roadside shops dealing with hand tool manufacturing sector have no recognition. In rural areas the picture is more discernible. The hand tool industry is mainly unorganized and suffers from lack of standardization, energy security, job security and has sustainability problems in the competitive global market. Decentralization of standardization system can create new jobs in rural areas. To regularize the development of this sector we need to generate a large database for the untouched section of the hand tool industry.

 

 

 

 

Reference websites and additional readings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix

Table : Some important Indian Standards of agricultural tools

 

S No.

Name of the agricultural tools

Year of issue

Standard Code

Reaffirmed Year

Agricultural Tractors

1.

Test Code for Agricultural Tractors

1998

IS: 5994 Part-I & II

-

2.

Guidelines for field performance evaluations of Agricultural Tractors

2001

IS: 9253

-

3.

Dimensions for three point linkage of agricultural wheeled tractors

1977

IS: 4468

-

4.

Power take-off shaft of agricultural tractors

1997

IS: 4931

-

5.

Symbols for operator’s controls on agricultural Tractors

1998

IS: 6283

-

6.

Code of practice for installation of agricultural wheeled tractors

1972

IS: 6847

-

7.

Guidelines for presentation of operator manuals and technical publications

1999

IS: 8132

-

8.

Guidelines for location and operation of operator controls on agricultural tractors and machinery

1983

IS: 8133

-

9.

Agricultural Tractors-Recommendations on Selected Performance Characteristics club with previous block

1999

IS: 12207

-

10.

Agricultural Tractors-operator’s seat-Technical Requirements

1918

IS: 12343

-

11.

Agricultural Tractors and machinery-Lighting devices for travel on public roads

1999

IS: 14683

-

12.

Agricultural Tractors-Maximum actuating forces required to operate controls

 

IS: 10703

-

13.

Technical requirements of agricultural tractors for wetland cultivation

1984

IS: 11082

-

14.

Guidelines for declaration of power and specific fuel consumption, labeling of tractors

1987

IS: 10273

-

Power Tillers

15.

Test Code for Power Tillers

1988

IS: 9935

-

16.

Power Tillers-Selected Performance characteristics-Recommendations

1993

IS: 13539

-

Self Propelled Combine Harvesters

17.

Combine Harvester-Thresher - Test Code

Pt-1: 1994

IS: 8122

-

18.

Combine Harvester-Thresher - Test Code

Pt-2: 2000

IS: 8122

-

Threshers

19.

Power Threshers-safety requirements

2002

IS: 9020

-

 M.B Plough

1990

IS: 6288

-

20.

Crop reaper (self propelled/tractor mounted):

 

 

-

21.

Test code for Cereal harvesting machines

1995

IS: 11467

2001

22.

Guards for harvesting machines

1983

IS: 6024

1999

 

Knife sections for harvesting machines

1982

IS: 6025

1999

Tractor Trailers

 

 

-

23.

Guidelines for field performance evaluation of Agricultural Tractors

2001

IS: 9253

-

24.

Agricultural Tractors-Braking Performance- Method of Test

1994

IS: 12061

1998

Bullock Drawn Plough

1998

IS: 2192

-

Bullock Drawn Ridger

 

IS: 2565

1995

25.

Seed cum Fertilizer drill: Test code

1993

IS: 6316

-

26.

Tractor operated Blade Terraces-specifications           

2002

IS: 9813

-

27.

Equipment-Fogging Machines-specifications

2001: Pt-II

IS:14855

-

 

 

 

 

 

 

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