Farm mechanisation
Also called: Mechanisation of agriculture · Topic: Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Farm Subsidies · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 8 "Comparative Development Experiences of India and its Neighbours"
Meaning
Farm mechanisation means using machines in place of human and animal power in farming. Common machines are tractors, threshers, harvesters and pumpsets. It spread in India with the Green Revolution. Machines let farmers plough, water and harvest faster, which made growing two crops a year easier. The downside is that machines also displaced farm labour.
Example
In Punjab, Haryana and western UP, scattered plots were merged into compact blocks after 1948. This made tractors and tubewells viable, so farmers there mechanised early. In eastern India, where holdings stayed tiny and scattered, mechanisation came much later.
Don't confuse with
- Precision farming: mechanisation replaces muscle power with machines. Precision farming uses GPS, sensors, drones and data to apply inputs at the right place, time and quantity.
Related concepts
- Green Revolution
- High-yielding variety seeds
- Research and extension
- Crop yield
- Seed replacement rate
- Kharif crops
- Rabi crops
- Zaid crops
- Multiple cropping
- Net sown area