Mechanized Farming in Africa

Mechanized Farming is a mechanical process of agriculture farming with the help of powered machines such as tractors, trucks, combine harvester, and implements. It helps makes quickly executing tasks in a few minutes with extreme efficiency and ease of labor operation. Massey Ferguson Tractors

Which animals are used for Ploughing?

Gone are the days when there were oxen carts used for ploughing on a large area of agriculture field which were to require extensive and exhaustive human labor for pulling carts forcefully all around the field. It was a 2-door bullock cart tied up with draught animals used for dragging on the field area.

How does modern machines make farming easy?

By the advent of the industrial revolution, manual farming was rapidly transformed into modern mechanized farming which is truly considered the future of agriculture farming. The latest technological era of today provides many easy and refined ways of mechanized agriculture farming with high powered compact tractors and harvesting machines for ease of farmers.

Pros and Cons of mechanized farming

The following are some of the Pros and Cons of mechanized farming for a better understanding of readers:

Benefits of Mechanized Farming

Enhanced Land Cultivation

The first and foremost benefit of mechanized farming is the enhancement of land cultivation with easy fertilization of barren soil. Modern farming equipment like tractors and harvesting machines are employed to easily cultivate a larger area of agricultural land with productive results.

Time-Saving

Time-Saving is another valuable advantage of mechanized farming as this mechanical method of agriculture farming saves a lot of time which can be utilized in many other useful farming activities.

Cost of Saving

The Modern Use of mechanized farming has drastically reduced the cost of production with more revenue income for farmers. It helps enhances the level of quality of production with more productive yields and efficient farming operations.

Task Efficiency

Mechanized Farming has provided a lot of efficiency in executing tasks much faster in less period of time. It has increased soil productivity with more areas of land cultivation for farmers with effective results.

Irrigation and Transportation Facilities

The irrigation system has much improved now by means of tube wells for releasing water through proper channels of irrigated canals and eliminated water logging issues. Moreover, it has provided ease of transportation in carrying goods from a single place to another by means of tractors with other implements attachments.

Drawbacks of Mechanized Farming

Redundancy Of Labor

The biggest drawback of mechanized farming is that it has provided redundancy in labor jobs by taking over all manual tasks by transforming them with machine-operated tasks execution. There is a huge increasing rate of agricultural unemployment in many underdeveloped countries of the world which is becoming a serious cause of poverty.

Higher Cost of Machinery

Modern Machinery is much high priced which are beyond the reach of poor farmers to buy them due to which cost of production is also increased. Some other issues are the unavailability of skilled labor who has proper technical knowledge about operating this advanced farming machinery. Mechanized Farming has more advantages than disadvantages as it provides relief to farmers with ease and efficiency in performing farming chores in a much faster way with an increase of soil productivity and rising income for farmers for a better way of living.

Benefits of Organic Farming

Organic Farming

Organic Farming is defined as a healthy way of growing crops by means of natural fertilizing such as compost and green manure. It requires a complete life cycle process of soil cultivation, optimum water resource utilization, animal husbandry, pest and weed management, recycling of waste crops, biodiversity, and drought-resistant crops. It provides a beneficial reason for healthy nutritious food production in a natural way. It helps builds good fertility of the soil by the help of crop rotation, mulching, and mechanical tillage to soften a soil surface to make it absorb more nutrients by proper combination of air, water, and sunlight which are all considered as core essential ingredients for naturally grown crops. Following are the five benefits of organic farming practices:

  • Enhanced Productivity of Soil
  • Organic Pest Control
  • Bio Crop Diversity
  • Soil Water Conservation
  • Better Food Nutrition

Enhanced Productivity of Soil

One of the major benefits of organic farming has enhanced the productivity of soil as it helps increases the maximum fertility of the soil with enriched nutritional value for a healthy clean diet food for everyone. Organic Soil Management is a vital factor in increasing the natural productive value of the soil by having a balanced mix of organic matters such as green manures and recycled waste. Rotation of crops and tilling are the best cultivating practices for mixing nutrients into the soil for growing healthy yield crops.

Organic Pests Control

Pests are harmful insects that quickly destroy agricultural field crops. Farmers often use various pesticide sprays for preventing crops from being damaged. Biological pest control is the natural way of controlling pests which is based on natural mechanisms like predation, parasitism, and herbivore, etc. It provides three kinds of pest control strategies such as importation, augmentation, and conservation.

Bio Crop Diversity

Bio Crop Diversity is a diversification of agricultural crops to reproduce more different crops by means of genetic engineering. It is a genetic science that consists of DNA Genes to produce crops with similar attributes with better nutrition. The core purpose is to fulfill the requirement of the scarcity of food in the world to do more eco-friendly genetic seed crop plantation.

Soil Water Conservation

Soil Water Conservation is an essential factor of conserving water for better soil management for healthy crop farming. Drip Irrigation is the best way to save water is to create small micro-irrigation canals to help store a sufficient amount of water for fertilizing a deep root soil. Drought Resistant Crops are another beneficial way to help save water and also prevent soil erosion.

Better Food Nutrition

Food Nutrition is an essential element which provides enrichment of proteins, vitamins, and minerals for the healthy nourishment of human being.  Organic farming is the main source of producing high-value nutritious crops for a delicious and tasty food diet for everyone. Organic farming provides countless advantages for a healthier and safer eco-friendly living environment for farmers to cultivate natural yield crops to have a fertile productive sustainable soil condition.

Modern Technological Trends in Agriculture Productivity Growth

modern technological trends in Agriculture Trends in agriculture productivity growth is a transition journey of oxen cart manual labor farming with a shift to mechanized and modern industrial farming practices. By Scientific Means, agriculture productivity is defined as a calculated ratio of output to input. The increase of productivity in farming means more production of food and more prosperity for farmers to earn a better livelihood. Agriculture is the largest source of producing and supplying food to the mass majority of the world population. On a global scale, it has witnessed a significant rise in terms of technological advancement for the purpose of making tasks easier for farmers and help increase the level of productivity with fertile soil cultivation to help yield healthy organic crops. In the modern era of innovation, there has been a fast-paced productivity growth in agriculture which is essentially beneficial for an abundant supply of food for customers. There are many regions of the world where there is a rising variation trend in agriculture farming productivity such as Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, Oceania, and the Pacific. To determine the productivity growth in farming, Total Factor Productivity is the best ratio which is generally evaluated by dividing output by the calculated average of labor and capital input. The two of the most essential elements of total factor productivity are technology growth and efficiency. The latest trends in Agriculture Productivity Growth are mechanization, high yielding crop varieties, genetic engineering, and bio-crop diversity.

Mechanization

Mechanization has put a profound impact on agriculture by dynamically transforming the traditional oxen cart driven farming into machine operated farming practices. It has provided a true means of multitasking efficiency in executing complex hours of manual labor tasks in a much less time period. Moreover, it provides ease of soil fertility to make it soften for maximum yield crop cultivation.

High Yield Crop Varieties

High Yield Crop Varieties are essential productivity factors to help produce more variety of crops for the maximum amount of food supply. These factors involve higher crop yield per hectare, improved fertilizers, and irrigation. The highest yielding variety of crops are wheat, corn, soybean, rice, potato, and cotton.

Genetic Engineering

Genetic Engineering is a new trend of increasing productivity growth in agriculture by means of DNA Genes to reproduce more genetically modified crops with having the same attributes and nutritional value for a healthy food diet. It helps in diversifying the food crop for an abundance of the global food supply in the entire world.

Bio Crop Diversity

Bio Crop Diversity provides diverse varieties of crops with better nutrition for customers. It is a vital factor for fulfilling the rising demand for food in the world by organically growing more variations of seed crops with the same set of qualities. With the new evolution of science and technology, modern technological trends will keep coming up to help enhance the maximum productive capacity of soil by using less labor effort to yield a healthy organic cultivated crop for an enormous amount of healthy nutrition enriched natural food production for people all over the world.

Difference between 2WD vs 4WD Tractor

2WD vs 4WD Tractors

What is a Tractor?

A tractor is an agriculture farming vehicle designed for the purpose of mechanization of field tasks by farmers. It helps performs a huge variety of difficult tasks to get simplified for farmers with an ease of execution such as tilling, plowing, harrowing, disking, and planting. Modern Tractors are basically categorized into single axle or 2 wheel drive tractors and two axles 4 wheel drive tractors. Let us describe the sheer difference between these two kinds of compact tractors:

2 Wheel Drive Tractor

2-Wheel Drive Tractor is generally used in dry farming conditions as well as for the purpose of field farming transportation. It is operated with a self-powered and propelled single axle which can easily carry all different kinds of attached farming implements such as trailer, cultivator, seeders, and harvesters. These kinds of tractors are capable of dragging various types of implements in agriculture production including rotary tiller, mouldboard ploughs, disc ploughs, rotary tillers, seeders, and transplanters. It usually comes with a specified range of 5 hp to 200 hp and utilizes most of the weight on the rear axle for increased traction. The key benefit of having a 2-wheel drive tractor is a small turning cycle, ease of design, and affordable purchase value for farmers. The disadvantage of a 2-wheel drive tractor is the incapability to perform in wet, slippery, and muddy conditions.

4 Wheel Drive Tractor

4 Wheel Drive Tractor is a robust and rugged designed tractor vehicle ideal for its dynamic movement of all four wheels and provides increased tractors with a huge pulling capacity of the wide variety of attached implements. It helps provides ease of cultivation in less time period by reducing manual labor and per capital cost. It also provides high fuel-efficiency with less wear and tear of tires and carries the maximum load by balancing weight in equal proportions on front and rear axles with stable steering control and maximum pulling power. It is an excellent choice for farmers to provide a smooth drive in all kinds of harsh conditions. Comparison, it is concluded that 4-Wheel Drive is much better and efficient in terms of performance and provides quicker farming results in less time. It provides greater flexibility of operations with implements attachments for maximum traction for farmers to yield excellent productivity in agriculture farming.

History of Massey Ferguson Tractors

Massey Ferguson is the world’s leading brand name in supplying top-quality agriculture farming equipment to consumers around the globe. It supplies a wide range of farm tractors and implements attachments to customers at better value prices and has become an ideal choice among small and large-sized farmers for its long-term durability and uncompromising quality. It also provides agricultural advice and specialized training to all farmers. It has a long successful history of 170 years and still keeping on to mark its true presence with a profound reputation in the farming industry for many years to come. Let’s peep inside to have a keen look at the glorious historic background era of Massey-Ferguson to share some interesting stories.

It all began in 1847 when Daniel Massey an American blacksmith businessman opened up a small workshop to manufacture simple farm implements in New Castle. He initially started with assembling parts and gradually after a period of time began designing his own equipment. His oldest son also joined the family-run business and shifted the location to Ontario, Canada where it flourished and expanded to become a multi-national farm equipment manufacturing company as what it is popularly known today. In 1993, Massey Ferguson was officially acquired by Allis-Gleaner Corporation popularly known as Agco.

It is a company formed in the year 1990 and represents five international agriculture equipment manufacturing brands named as Challenger, Fendt, GSI, Massey Ferguson, and Valtra. It offers a varied product line of tractors, combines, hay tools, sprayers, forage, tillage equipment, and parts. For the sake of innovative technology, it offers precision agriculture farming and mixed fleet farming operations to help increase yield productivity and productivity for all farmers around the world.

Which tractors are made in Pakistan?

The telemetry-based tracking system provides instant real-time machinery fleet tracking and helps in remote farming activities with a GPS Satellite System for better-optimized results for customers. In Pakistan, Massey Ferguson is distributed by Millat Tractor Group which is providing its service of excellence since 50 years. It deals with all range of 50 to 85 horsepower Massey Ferguson brand tractors and all attached agriculture farming implements such as a chisel, disc, and mould plough, tine tillers, offset disc harrow, front blade, agriculture loader, hydraulic tipping trolleys, jib crane, a post hole digger, lawnmower, and pneumatic pruning set for farmers in Pakistan and abroad for global countries.

History of New Holland Tractors

New Holland is an internationally acclaimed agriculture farming equipment brand that specializes in a wide range of farming tractors, combine harvesters, balers, and forage harvesters. It also manufactures seeding machines, haying tools, and self-propelled sprayers with construction equipment. It has an outstanding historic background spanning 123 years with a huge celebration of a global successful market presence reaching over 170 countries worldwide including Northern America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle Eastern region.

The history of New Holland was dated back to 1895 by the young man Abram Zimmerman initially founded the New Holland Machine Company by purchasing a horse barn in New Holland, Pennsylvania. At the young age of 26, he established his new business of blacksmith shop with a positive aim to manufacture and repair farm machinery for all the local farmers. Abe Zimmerman was a mechanical genius person who provided an extreme sense of innovation in machinery equipment by bringing fresh ideas such as the retailing of the German Ottoman four-cycle engine and later single-cylinder dual-fly wheel stationary engine known as Columbus. He also brought a prototype idea of manufacturing his own freeze-proof light-weight stationary engine and incorporated the New Holland Machine Company in the year 1903. The New Holland Machine Company produced many different kinds of horsepower stationary engine models with a range of ½ hp, 1 ½ hp, 2hp, 4 hp, and 5 hp, to 16 hp engine.

The current innovation is hydrogen and methane-powered productive range of tractors for energy independent farming with renewable fuel for an emission-free clean eco-friendly environment. It will provide better soil management and valuable control of water resources. The Case New Holland (CNH) is the latest merger of Case Corporation and New Holland which occurred on November 12, 1999. Case Corporation was founded by Jerome Increase Case in 1842 by the name of J.I Case Threshing Company. It was considered as one of the largest manufacturers of threshing machines and harvest equipment which also produced steam engines, self-propelled portable engines, traction engines, and steam tractors.

Today, Case CE and IH are two distinctive construction and agriculture equipment manufacturer brands with a globally recognized presence in the world. Pakistan has huge market demand for New Holland Tractors for agriculture farmers due to their durability, reliability, and versatility to perform all kinds of tasks with ease of farming operations. Al-Ghazi is the authorized name for distributing all range models of New Holland tractors locally and globally. It has a vast product line of NH 480 Power Steering, NH 480 S, NH 640, 640 S, New Holland 55-56, 60-56, and New Holland 70-56 (4WD). These tractors have a range of 55-85 horsepower capacity.

Organic and Non-Organic Farming

Organic and Non-Organic Farming are two completely different approaches in the agriculture farming industry which possess obvious differences between them. Organic Farming is a natural beneficial way of sustainable field crop farming which is highly essential for a healthy and eco-friendly environment to cultivate delicious nutritious vitamins and minerals enriched yield food crops for customers. It contains all essential factors such as green manure, composting, crop rotation, biological pest control, mulching, and intercropping. Non-Organic Farming is a harmful conventional way of quickly growing crops for the purpose of the increase in quantity in a short span of time. It employs all hazardous practices such as artificial synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides which provide severe damage to soil and make it less fertile to grow yield crops. The following are the comparative differences between organic and non-organic farming practices:

Crop Yield

Crop Yield is an essential factor to determine the amount of crop produced in an entire year of farming. The organic farming practice provides limitations of producing a larger quantity of crops due to the high nutritional value of soil. Conventional farming has the capability to produce maximum yield crops by means of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers to grow more crops in a less period of time.

Eco-Friendly Environment

The environment plays a vital role in better-nourished farming crops with good soil fertility. Organic farming is extremely beneficial for a healthy safer eco-friendly environment to help make fertile soil to produce nutrients enriched food crops. On the contrary, Conventional farming is really bad for the environment and causes adverse global effects like global warming and climate change which are disastrous for the farming industry.

Soil Health and Nutrition

Soil Health and Nutrition are core elements of farming which can result in better crop production with increased nutritional value.  Organic farming is a good practice for enhancing soil conditions with more productive fertility by means of crop rotation which helps cultivate fresh root-soil with mixed nutrients such as minerals and vitamins to provide delicious food crops for customers. On the other hand, Non-Organic farming destroys a soil condition with erosion and makes soil much dry and barren with the use of chemicals leaving no more chance of land cultivation for many years. By comparing both of the above farming practices, we see more beneficial features in the organic way of farming in terms of health, environment, and food safety. It has now become a positive trend to shift to organic farming to have a healthy better lifestyle with homemade delicious diet food.

How to Do Organic Farming

Organic farming is a complete process of naturally growing, composting, fertilizing, and harvesting yield crops for farmers with storage, processing, packaging, and shipping. It is a healthy alternative in farming without the use of synthetic fertilizers and helps maintains soil fertility by properly rotating crops to mix the maximum amount of nutrients into the soil for a delicious food diet. Moreover, it also helps control weeds, pesticides, and diseases by using animal livestock husbandry techniques. It provides a complete procedure of natural farming which involves vermicompost soil which means the breakdown of vegetables and food waste. Green leaf manure is ideal for softening and fertilizing soil for good soil cultivation. It is included with green leaves, grass clipping, and mulch. It helps improve soil structure and also increases water holding capacity with an east reduction of weeds and pests. Soil Management is a process of managing and protecting the long-term fertility of soils by maintaining organic matter levels, encouraging soil biological activity, and careful mechanical intervention.   The following methods are used for organic farming:

Crop Rotation

Crop Rotation is the process of rotating and systematically planting of crops in an arranged order to help maintain nutrients in the soil. It also helps reduces soil erosion and prevents plant diseases and pests. It provides proper row by row root seed planting with improved soil structure and fertility for growing and harvesting all kinds of food crops.

Soil Composting

Soil Composing is an essential part of organic farming and a key ingredient for healthy organic soil. It is a process of decomposition and recycling of waste food particles for the purpose of soil enhancement by boosting nutrient value into the soil for excellent fertility.

Mulching

Mulching is a covering layer on the surface of the soil to help conserve soil moisture, reduce weed growth, and improve the fertile health of the soil. Some of the essential mulching materials are weeds, crop residues, grass, cutting from hedges, and waste from agriculture processing.

Bio Fertilizer

Bio Fertilizer is an eco-friendly process of agro fertilization which is beneficial for organic farming as it contains dormant cells of microorganism means of fixing the availability of nutrients in the soil and causing improvement infertility of the soil.  It also maintains the natural habitat of soil by increasing yield crop by 20 percent and stimulates plant growth. Moreover, it can also help provide prevention against droughts and soil-borne diseases.

Agriculture and Climate Change

Agriculture is an essential source of producing and supplying food to the mass majority of people from the rural to the urban cities of the world. It involves a complete process of mechanized field tractor farming on a small and large area of arable land such as fertilizing, irrigating, crop rotating, seed planting, and crop harvesting, etc. This whole process requires a suitable amount of climate and weather conditions for organically growing field crops as a little bit change in climate can bring an unexpected disaster and badly damage field crops which can cause a huge financial loss for farmers with an increase in poverty and hunger. There is a strong relationship between agriculture and climate and a good combination of harmony can bring a positive change in flourishing agriculture all around the world because a majority of the countries today are entirely or partially dependent on a stable agriculture economy with a purpose to better fulfill the growing requirement of food and hunger on a global scale. The change of climate is caused by plenty of reasons such as global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. These two are major factors in depleting an ozone layer by widening a gap to emit harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun which is a real cause of changing weather conditions with increasing intensity of heat and cold in many parts of the world. The Greenhouse Gases include Carbon Di Oxide, Methane, and nitrous oxide which are extremely hazardous for environmental pollution and increase heat warming in the world. Deforestation is also a serious reason for climate change which can put negative impacts on the environment which can lead to adverse consequences for agriculture and badly damage yield crops such as excessive rainfall, drought, a rise in sea levels, melting of ice glaciers, and heavy stormwater cyclones. Tree plantation is the best remedy to reduce global warming as trees and forests provide a true shade in the heat and are helpful in generating an abundant source of fresh oxygen for a healthy eco-friendly environment. Organic farming is another beneficial way to help reduce global warming to the maximum extent and it also helps in producing natural healthy bio-diversity nutritious genetically modified food crops. GM Crops provide the best solution for tackling food security issues prevailing in the world by means of taking DNA Genes from plants to reproduce another plant of the same matching characteristics to help provide pest control and drought resistance with healthy fertile soil.

How To Increase Agriculture Farming While Using Tractors

How did the tractor improve agriculture?

tractor improve agriculture

Tractors are agricultural farming machines that have simply revolutionized the way of farming by making it more efficient and convenient. Today, there is much more ease for farmers than decades back when the traditional oxen cart method was used where there was two bullocks (oxen) were tied by a 4-wheeled wooden cart and forcefully used to drag it forward for the core purpose of plowing on fields. Modern tractor farming has brought a radical change in field farming by transforming the old conventional method of manual oxen farming into mechanization. It has reduced human effort to a maximum level and brought ease of comfort with more productivity in less time. Nowadays, tractors offer multiple uses and implementations for farmers to perform their task much effectively. There are plenty of benefits of increasing agriculture farming with the help of mechanized tractors:

Increased Crop Production

Maximizing Crop Production is the first and foremost benefit of agricultural mechanization as it greatly helps farmers to yield an increased amount of crops with less cost of labor. The cutting cost has provided a true advantage of quick task execution by saving a lot of money on extra manpower.

Better Productivity

Productivity is the essential element in agriculture farming where performance is increased by double with a rate of better efficiency of task execution and maximum crop production. Now, a farmer can easily cover a wide area of land for plowing, tilling, cultivating, planting, fertilizing, and seeding tasks.

Durability and Versatility

Durability and Versatility are two integral factors that cause more amount of work with longer hours of tractor working capability and performing a variety of tasks on a single machine. Implements attachment helps create a versatile mechanized task performance in less time for farmers.

Time-Saving

Time-Saving is a key reason for using tractor farming as it helps saves a lot of time and performs tasks in a few minutes which were used to be done in hours. It has simplified complex tasks with ease of efficiency for farmers. It has maximized results with the finest quality plowing, reaping, and crop cultivation.

Low Cost of Production

Tractor Farming has helped decreased the cost of work with less manpower labor and more efficient task output performance. It has rapidly increased the income of farmers by making them more prosperous than ever before. Tractors provide a lot of help in increasing farming productivity by doing complex tedious tasks in an easy and effective manner. It is built with a robust compact design with the dynamic powered engine to forcefully pull heavy loads with hydrostatic and power shift transmission for a smooth plough on the agricultural land field.