Comparative Study of Mechanised and Non-Mechanized Farmers' Views regarding Values and Beliefs in Life (2014)

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)Agricultural mechanization, one of the great achievements of the 20th century was enabled by technologies that created value in agricultural production practices through the more efficient use of labor, the timeliness of operations, and more efficient input management with a focus on sustainable, high-productivity systems. Historically, affordable machinery, which increased capability and standardization and measurably improved productivity, was a key enabler of agricultural mechanization..In the 19th century, as our society matured, a great many innovations transformed the face of American agriculture. Taking advantage of a large labor base and draft animals, farmers had been able to manage reasonable areas of land. This form of agriculture was still practiced in some places until the middle of the 20th century.Early innovations were implements and tools that increased the productivity of draft animals and assisted farmers in preparing land for cultivation, planting and seeding, and managing and harvesting crops. The origins of the John Deere Company, for example, were based on the steel-surfaced plow developed by its founder. This important innovation increased the productivity of farmers working in the sticky soils of the Midwest. A major turning point occurred when tractors began to replace draft animals in the early decades of the 20th century. Tractors leveraged a growing oil economy to significantly accelerate agricultural productivity and output. Early harvesting methods had required separate process operations for different implements. With tractors, the number of necessary passes in a field for specific implements was reduced, and eventually, those implements were combined through innovation into the combination or combine harvester.For most of the 20th century, four key factors influenced increases in the rate of crop production: more efficient use of labor; the timeliness of operations; more efficient use of inputs; and more sustainable productions systems These four drivers played out at different rates in different crop production systems, but always led to more efficient systems with lower input costs. Technological innovations generally increased mechanization by integrating functional processes in a machine or crop production system and by making it possible for a farmer to manage increasingly large areas of land.Once again, by sharing the experience of Punjab, Haryana and Godawari district of Andhra Pradesh revealing that the area which boasted of high degree of mechanization were among the first to respond favourably to the new high yielding varieties seeds and associated innovations (Govt, of India, 1974).The agricultural development involves the availability and use of tools, implements, machines and power units by the farmers for production of crops either as individually owned or available on custom hire basis. Farm mechanization may be viewed differently by different persons. There are variation in the notions of people about farm mechanization. For a few, it means the use of modem machinery from seed-bed preparation to harvesting and transporting. For others, it means the replacement of manual and animal labour by improved agricultural implement and tractors. Some have called it tractorization. Singh and Singh consider that operationally, mechanization is the use of tractor and tractor operated machinery in farming.Roy held that tractor and tractor drawn implements is mechanization. Therefore before proceeding ahead, it is essential to conceptualize farm mechanization. Farm mechanization is conceptualized as the use of tractor or tractor driven machines in farming operations in place of human and animal power which has contributed tremendously for bringing about green revolution and thereby added to the progress of nation (Balishter et al., 1991; Murthy, 1991, Singh, 2000). This study is focused on the social implications of the use of tractor and tractor operated farm machinery, as tractor is the most important spearhead of the farm mechanization in India. …