Agriculture Needs Engineering Culture

By V.A.Tripathi
India is a democratic country as our constitution says. It is states government responsibility to take
care of every part of state in terms of development. But as I start exploring it, picture of two sides of
development means both urban and rural become more visible and contrast in nature.
In Vidharba region for last few years every other day we read the news of farmers committing suicides. The
number of farmers who have committed suicides since 1997 has crossed 1 lakh in India. In this context the
actual problems being faced by the Indian farmer are to be understood and analyzed. Innovative remedies
have to be thought, which are to be implemented with sincerity by the Government and the implementing
agencies, along with putting in place ways to rehabilitate the affected farmers. An attempt has been made for
farmers plight leading to suicide and measures to address the issue. Several studies have been conducted by
the Government and social science organizations to analyze the agrarian crisis and farmers suicides [3].
The technological change in agriculture that is currently under way in India and was initiated in the
1960s when the Government introduced and popularized in certain regions of the country the high-yielding
varieties (HYVs) of wheat and rice respectively. Over the last three decades, there has been a marked
increase in the use of HYVs and hybrid seeds, and of the inputs like fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation
which are essential for raising them and mechanizations of agriculture throughout the country. Nevertheless,
it is widely held that the geographical spread of the improved technology been uneven, but the sharing of
the benefits of technology by different sections of the farmers has also been extremely unequal.
In India the total percentage of number of marginal and small size land holding farmers is increased
from 69.6% to 87.2%. While this figure for medium and large size holding decline from 15.7% to 7.5 %
during the period 1990 to 2008[4] (PAU Ludhiana). This data clearly indicates that average size of land
holding has decreased the composition of Indian farms varies drastically. India has large no of farms with
land holding of less than 2 hectares and very poor economic condition. Single farm ownership and use of
tractors and machinery on these small farms is not economically viable.

Percentage of Land Holdings in India by PAU [4]

1980-90

1990-2000

2000-2008

Marginal (<1ha)

50.6

56.8

59.4

Small (1-2 ha)

19.0

18.1

18.8

Semi-Medium(2-4 ha)

15.2

13.7

13.7

Medium (4-10 ha)

11.3

9.1

7.1

Large (> 10 ha)

3.9

2.4

1.6

100.0

100.0

100.0

Total

Table 1.1 Percentages of land holdings in India

In international competition India is developing country, India has to compete in the
international trade including agricultural trade. The basic requirement of this competition is to improve and
support agricultural sector technically so as to reduce cost of production and to compete cut throat
competition to remain as a part of international market. There has been progressive shift from draft animal
power to mechanical power in Indian agriculture because draft animal power was not sufficient to cope up
with work load of intensive agriculture. The use of mechanical power is becoming indispensable for making
an optimal use of other resources and in-time completion of various farm operations under intensive
agriculture.
Hence, mechanization has become a very crucial input for
further development of agriculture. Mechanization in various operations in agriculture saves time in
completing different operations, which gives the crop and land more time to mature, allows the farmer to be
more flexible in his farming operations facilitates multi and relay cropping. These transitions from animal
power to mechanical power in some states have made the agriculture capital intensive. But in some states it
doesnt play key role. It has played a key role in modernization of Indian agriculture due to its benefits of
improved labor efficiency and productivity.
According to economist the present G.D.P. (Gross Domestic Product) growth is 8.5% and
contribution of agriculture to overall G.D.P. growth is only 2.8 %. For the global image of India, it is very
much necessary to increase the overall G.D.P. growth beyond 10%. But it cant be done without increasing
the G.D.P. growth of agricultural sector, because we have done enough in the IT, manufacturing,
Automobile, Textile, Pharmacy, Infrastructure etc.

So, without increasing the agriculture G.D.P. growth minimum up to 4 % it is not possible to achieve the
G.D.P. growth beyond 10 %. For this purpose of increasing agriculture G.D.P. technology have to play vital
role in agriculture sector.
Thinking on development has long held that agricultural growth is an important step toward
economic development and transformation. However, the new challenges facing Indian agriculture in todays
more globalize environment have led some question whether conventional wisdom about the role of
agriculture in development is still applicable to India there is shift in emphasis toward non agricultural
growth opportunities which has the potential to reshape the development strategy. Indian agriculture sector
has sufficient scale to increase economic growth significantly over the foreseeable future. Agricultural
growth is more effective for reducing poverty, even in the countries that may have the potential for the
industrial growth driven by rich natural resources. Agriculture in India needs significant increase in public
and private investment.
Although there is lots of development done in Industrial and IT sector. India is a developing country
and agriculture plays a vital role in the Indian economy. If we concentrate on the development of
agricultural sector our economy can increase by significant amount.
The agricultural sector can be developed by applying various technologies which can be useful for the day
to day life of the farmers. The designs of the basic farming machineries are not changed from past few
years. On the other hand, there is a phenomenal growth in the design and manufacturing of, components
produced by auto, machine tools, telecom, and other industries. Now the work of the engineers is to
introduce new technology and research work for the development of the farming sector because it is the area
where less technological advancement is used for the welfare of rural people.
Following are some problem by which rural area is lagging
Lack of interest by the engineering community to take up such problems due to non-availability of
easy literature on those topics unlike the vast literature available on topics like automobiles, consumer
products like TV, VCR, etc., machine tools, and others.
The rural engineering problems are not popular amongst engineering students and very few faculty and
researchers do work in this area.

60%

of

rural

population

(~

400

million)

in

India

lives

in

primitive

conditions.

Technology and its application have not touched their lives even after 61 years of independence.
Around 260 million people (1/4thof our population) live on less than Rs 50/day (a survey by NARI)

 Lack of technology and its applications in farming sector has resulted in suicides of a large number of
farmers. In last 10 years about 150,000 farmers have committed suicide. Poor support price, increased
input costs and aspirations. Also no long term agriculture policy.
Due to lack of the availability of electricity in rural area. Electrical machineries dont play a vital role.
In rural areas 250 kWh/yr per capita electricity consumption. .
In Maharashtra alone ~ 6000 MW shortage resulting in 12-15 hours daily blackouts in rural areas and
Crude oil products are non renewable sources of energy and they are going to be exhausted and these
petroleum products play a vital role in creating pollution due to which global warming is occurring. So
the use of the crude oil products is not a good option as since last year India imported Rs. 120,000 corers
worth of petroleum products. Serious balance of payment problems. 8-9% p.a. growth in petroleum
consumption.

Mahatma Gandhi said that development activities

should be carried out in a phased manner that does not disturb the beneficial aspects of dynamic
equilibrium, but that does promote positive development with appropriate technology. This quote does
illustrate an important point: the development should be done in a proper manner and in every sector. The
development should not be concentrated to any particular sector in order to have the complete development
of the nation.
After 62 long years of Independence, technology in the rural India is not up to that mark. Nearly 625
million people in India do not have access to modern technology because of high cost and lack of
distribution system, especially in villages. More than 60% of Indians depend upon agriculture for their
livelihood. But as land scarcity is increasing day by day, hence there is necessity of such technology which
can overcome these problems.

Vindhyavesh Tripathi
9503813599
vatripathi@svmech.com, vatripathi25@gmail.com