The Importance and Impact of Farm Mechanisation in Agriculture

Mechanisation in agriculture is the deployment of technologies, processes, and procedures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of food moving along value chains. It ranges from small solar dryers and rice threshers to tractors and high-tech drone-enabled soil testing. Key to the future development and growth of smallholder agriculture, mechanisation can benefit diverse stakeholders across agriculture and food systems.

Source: United Nations Food Systems Summit

Mechanisation as a Service (MaaS) and its appropriate scaling to make it affordable, especially for marginal and small farmers, is one of the most effective ways to enhance yield quality and quantity to help farmers multiply returns. It is particularly well-suited to Asia and Africa, which have low to medium levels of mechanisation and where food prices of staple crops like maize, rice, and wheat continue to rise despite import growth. MaaS can lower the production costs of staple food and increase local production to lower reliance on imports. Its appropriate adoption can also contribute to the alleviation of hunger.?

• It ensures timely preparation of the land in an atmosphere of increasing climate change and uncertainty
• It reduces the costs of production in a world where the cost of labour is constantly rising
• It reduces losses with the help of more efficient pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest methods
• It increases the market share of smallholders and creates new employment opportunities and diversified livelihoods, making rural employment more attractive
• It cuts costs, increases yields, and conserves natural resources
• It improves the operational efficiency and life cycle of machines?
• It increases agricultural productivity and reduces poverty
• It addresses problems related to sustainability and enhances sustainability measures

Mechanisation of food systems is critical to improving the welfare of farming populations by reducing unemployment among the most vulnerable of them—women. MaaS in agriculture can address gender inequalities, lower the time and effort women expend on manual labour, and enhance their profits because their physical capacities no longer limit them. It will also allow them to transform their crops and improve their incomes.

However, designed for larger farms, most mechanisation solutions for farming are not cost effective for the vast majority of farmers who have smallholdings. They do not generate adequate ROI to justify the high cost of ownership. Estimates show that a farmer using a combination of power-based mechanisation and animal power can provide food for up to fifty people, compared to just six when using draught animal power alone.

Studies by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under the Network Project on Climate Change (NPCC) indicate that in the medium term (2010–2039), food production could reduce by 4.5–9% and in the long term (2070–2099), the production could decrease by nearly 25%. Since agriculture makes up roughly 15% of India’s GDP, a 4.5–9% loss of production could translate into a loss of approximately 1.5 GDP per year because of climate change.?

A tiny percentage of the approximately 13 crore small, medium, marginal and large farmers in the country have access to modern farm machinery such as backhoes, combine harvesters, cultivators, sprayers, tractors, and mowers that increase farm productivity. With a majority continuing to rely on traditional farming techniques, shared technological interventions and climate-resilient technologies can help farmers make informed decisions and increase their resilience against climate-change shocks.?