Agricultural Implements Sector Climbing the Technology Ladder

Janifha Evangeline

As the agricultural sector is undergoing significant evolution, technology is becoming an indispensable part of every commercial farm, today. New precision agriculture enterprises that are helping farmers or cultivators to obtain maximum yields are in the process of developing various technologies that would help them in controlling every variable of crop farming, which include moisture levels, soil conditions, micro-climates, etc. Furthermore, these companies are providing more accurate techniques for cultivation, precision agriculture, and technology used in improving the efficiencies of farming activities that aid farmers in managing the costs.

India has made significant progress in the agricultural implements sector in the last decades. While farmers in the country mostly implemented hand tools and farm implements which were operated with the use of animals, the ‘Green Revolution’ brought about large-scale farm mechanization, encouraging a multitude of farmers to choose modern agricultural implements. These include combine harvesters, rice-transplanters, power tillers, threshers, tractors, pumping sets, etc.

The agricultural implements market in India in 2020, reached USD 10.4 billion. Factors driving the growth and demand for farm implements include a profound shortage of skilled labor for agricultural activities. This has further resulted in the surge in demand for agriculture equipment in the Indian market.

Agricultural Implements and their applications

The various types of agricultural implements are broadly categorized into Irrigation Machinery, Soil cultivation implements, planting machines, harvesting implements, and miscellaneous agricultural equipment. Agriculture implements help in reducing labor and improve the efficiency of agriculture activities and some of the examples of Agricultural implements include pivot irrigation systems and pump units, disk harrows, tillers in several varieties, precision drills, broadcast seeders, air seeders, transplanting equipment, trailers, pickers, diggers, etc.

Combine Harvester

Used in the process of farming that comprises reaping, winnowing, threshing, a combine harvester is the best machine, which is leveraged in harvesting various kinds of crops such as wheat, barley, corn, oats, etc. A Combine Harvester is the perfect option for cultivators who look to increase agriculture activities.

Noteworthy Innovation

One of the leading manufacturers of tractors based out of Japan offers combine harvesters and rice transplanters.

With rice farming in Asia expeditiously mechanizing, this company as one of the top players in this landscape has applied its refined rice farming machinery technologies to build solutions for its clients.

These implements have helped the mechanization of rice transplanting and harvesting, which are the most labor-intensive process in rice farming. These products have not only helped in reducing labor but also helped cultivators in increasing efficiency. The combine harvester offered by the company has developed in such a way that they are lightweight with a compact design. Therefore, it not only provides great maneuverability but also high fuel efficiency even on small farms. Further, the wide-diameter, long threshing cylinder with axial-flow of the company’s combine harvester makes it highly capable of threshing crops such as rice which are not very easy to separate seeds from.

The company also offers transplanters that deliver great performance even in poorly-drained paddy fields. Both the combine harvester and transplanter of this company find applications in areas such as transplanting, rice, and corn reaping.

Self-driven farm implement

Automated farm implement that includes self-driven seeder not only helps in solving the problem of time-constraints but also finds solutions to problems such as labor shortages. These types of Machines can work round the clock tirelessly and help in getting higher yields in a shorter period. Also, automated farm implements are perfect for orchard management. This is because these machines would help farmers to work on other important activities like how to improve the quality of crops rather than just focusing on manual labor.

Then there is engine-driven agricultural sprayer which is a special type of portable sprayer in the agricultural sprayers landscape, which is widely used in disinfectant and hygienic operations.

Smart Farming

Recently, Bosch - the German multinational engineering and technology company that provides automotive parts, power tools, etc formed a joint venture with BASF Digital Farming. This JV was formed mainly intending to market as well as sell globally smart farming technologies from a single source.

“This new 50:50 Joint Venture has been registered as Bosch BASF Smart Farming (BBSF) GmbH,” Bosch said in a release. The smart spraying solution, being developed and tested by Bosch and BASF will be distributed to the European, North America, South American markets.

As per Bosch, the organizations’ Intelligent Planting Solution (IPS) is already commercially available in countries like Brazil and Argentina will leverage the advanced digital agronomic intelligence of BASF’s xarvio crop optimization platform in order to intensify and enhance zone-based seeding recommendations in Brazil in the coming days.

“We have reached another important milestone in receiving merger control approval and have made considerable progress in the past few months. We have established the new company together, built the new team, and continued to test our products successfully under different climatic conditions with various manufacturers,” Florian Gwosdz, joint managing director of Bosch BASF Smart Farming, said.

Silvia Cifre Wibrow, joint managing director of Bosch BASF Smart Farming said that “With smart spraying, we are bringing a new digital solution to market and a new approach to weed management.” “The unique ability for Smart Spraying to see, decide and spray based on agronomic intelligence is not just financially good for farmers, but also it’s good for the environment, sustainability, and biodiversity,” Wibrow added.

With such technologies being developed, mechanization in agriculture is bound to reach the next level. It is only a matter of time when we will see Indian agriculture performing at par with the global one in terms of technology maturity.