Agriculture Mechanization In India
India produces more than 550 million tonnes of crop residue every year, and that the highest producers of this crop residue are Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab. The illegal burning of crop stubble is contributing a major part in the trending pollution issue in Delhi. As per the report of SAFAR, the contribution of stubble burning in Delhi's pollution rose up to 46 percent with farm fires continuing in Haryana and Punjab. The air in Delhi consists of 20 times more polluting particles than the World Health Organization recommends. The economic and health costs to tackle this are estimated to be $30 billion in a single season which is 1.5 times the Indian budget for health and education. Indian Farmers farming practices for harvesting rice and wheat are highly mechanized. These practices leave a large amount of scattered, root-bound paddy straw in the field after the harvest. Rice straw, which has silica content in large amounts, is considered to be poor feed; it has no other local economic use. Farmers have only 15- 21 days between harvesting paddy and planting the next crop. Since that is not enough time to clear and prepare the fields, and removing the rice straw left in the field, so that they burn the paddy residue (stubble). It is a common residue management practice among farmers in India. The time constraint and the labour-intensive nature of removing the rice straw have led to the mechanization of harvesting, which has, in turn, aggravated the paddy residue management issue. Crop residue management aims to achieve sustainable and profitable agriculture and subsequently aims at improved livelihoods of farmers through these simple techniques and farm Implement. ● Happy Seeder: Happy seeder is tractor-mounted implement that cuts and lift up the residue of rice plants wheat seeds into the bare soil, and deposits the paddy straw over the plant area as mulch. With the help of Happy Seeder farmers no longer need to till the land to plant their wheat. Instead, farmers can save their expenses on ploughing rotavator and land preparation. It is recommended to sow wheat crop after rice harvesting, with the help of happy seeder farmer can get more time for preparation as happy seeder does many activities at the same time. Keeping rice residue and changes in tillage practices reduces evapotranspiration losses, which could reduce irrigation water use in wheat in addition to buffering soil moisture, soil temperature, which in turn offers more crop yield as compared with traditional practices. Considering Economic, Environmental, Agronomic benefits of happy seeder government also taking initiative and giving 50 to 80 percent subsidy on happy seeder. New Holland Happy Seeder, Dasmesh Happy Seeder, Fieldking Happy Seeder are some options that you buy with government subsidy. ● Mulcher: Mulcher is a tractor operated post-harvest implement which helps clear remains of the harvested plants. Mulcher does 3 operations at one time i.e. cutting,