Different Types of Soils for Agriculture Farming

Soil plays an integral role in the entire process of farming which is to provide natural eco-friendly physical and biological environmental factors for living organisms such as air, moisture, temperature, and light. The core factor of soil is to provide the proper provision of food for all living species in the globe and basically made up of minerals, water, organic components, gases, and microorganisms. The major characteristics of the soil are food crop production, plant growth, aeration, habitat for animals, and also helps in better managing water and nutrient resources in agriculture farming.

Massey Ferguson Tractors with farm implements

Types Of Soil In Agriculture Farming

There are 6 essential types of soils in agriculture farming, which will be discussed in detail as below:

Loamy Soil

Loamy Soil is made of a true combination of sandy, silty, and clay soil and considered the perfect choice for gardening cultivation. It easily absorbs and holds water with good fertility for vegetation due to the high amount of rich nutrients with easy passing through of air.  There are many popular vegetables and plant species that can be easily grown with loamy soil such as Tomatoes, Carrots, Potatoes, Roses, Marigolds, and Zinnias.

Sandy Soil

Sandy Soil is a dry kind of soil with having a nutrient deficiency and fast-draining capability with quick growth for plants and prevents them from root decay. It is basically composed of granular materials such as small powdery rock and mineral particles and ideal for crops such as watermelons, peaches, and peanuts. It is formed as a result of the decomposition of various kinds of rocks for instance granite, limestone, shale, and quartz. It is mostly found in warm climate regions as close to the sea and absorbs more heat and less moisture.

Silty Soil

Silty Soil is a fine combination of sand and clay and created by the chemical and physical weathering of rocks which are mainly composed of quartz and feldspar, and sedimentary rock such as silt-stone. It is considered as the highly fertile soil and can easily absorb water with a retaining capacity for a longer time. It is normally found close to the streams and rivers because of quickly carried with water with a hard crusty texture. It contains nutrients better for the cultivation of crops with better moisture for easy filling and draining purposes.

Clay Soil

Clay Soil is composed of finely grained smallest soil particles which do not allow deep penetration of air through them. It possesses a better absorbing capacity of water with more amount of nutrients ideal for the excellent growth of plants. The clay soil is also wet and dry, the wet soil is heavy and becomes difficult to cultivate, while dry clay soil is soft and smooth and easy for plantation. There are plenty of vegetables that are best grown in clay soil such as broccoli, red and green cabbage, cauliflower, potato, pea, and bean.

Peaty Soil

Peaty Soil is made up of organic decomposition of an assemblage of plants and mostly found in natural areas such as moors, bogs, and peat-lands. It is an acidic kind of soil that is dark brown in color because of the high amount of nutrients and water. It has the capability to keep well-growing plant roots and prevents them from rain and also prevents from plants diseases.

Chalky Soil

Chalky soil is a basic soil composed of calcium carbonate, lime, and rocks. It usually requires a lot of water and fertilizer with having a difficulty in the growth of plants due to a high level of alkaline properties with a deficiency of iron and magnesium. It also becomes dry in summers and not considered ideal for plantation. These Different Kinds of Soils provide a variation in terms of texture, color, and capability to hold water and nutrients for growing multiple varieties of vegetables and plants with ease and difficulty in cultivation.

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Future Of Agriculture In Africa

Africa is foreseeing a rising future in the agriculture sector with having a young workforce and a huge area of cultivable arable land for farm plowing. There are many regions that possess large hectares of uncultivated land such as the Republic of Congo, Angola, Zambia, Cameroon, Mozambique, Gabon, Sudan, and Tanzania. This country will strongly rely on agriculture production for providing food security and boosting the economy by employing the latest methods of innovative farming.   The local agriculture sector has a diversity of areas to flourish in such as crop production, horticulture, animal production, and dairy farming, etc. African youth will have ample opportunities in field farming with the rapid increase of employment prospects for them. There are growing numbers of next-generation young-age Africans about 15-24 years who will get not remain unemployed with more agriculture development in the country especially in regions of Rwanda, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia will see a quick reduction in human poverty. The fresh labor workforce will help provide a rising trend in farm productivity with increased efficiency performance and better crop soil production. Below is the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis of the future of agriculture in Africa:

Strengths

  • Maize crop will have an uprise growth trend to provide the food supply for the mass majority of the African country.
  • White Maize will have a significant potential for export production in the region of Southern Africa.
  • Small Holders farming will flourish with an integral role in African agriculture.
  • Africa has a low-cost farming production which provides high yield crops with increased irrigation, and better utilization of fertilizers.
  • The tropical climate of the country is highly favorable for the plantation of different variations of fruits and vegetables.

Weaknesses

  • The Soil System of Africa is composed of less essential nutrients.
  • The average crop yield is one ton per hectare.
  • African agriculture is not yet developed with advanced modes of farming mechanization.
  • Farmers are not much capable to perform planting and harvesting due to financial restrictions.
  • Small Scale farmers have a shortage of reach to modern farming technologies and are far behind in the global competition.

Opportunities

  • The African Nation boosts a greater population of a young workforce for rural agriculture development.
  • There are a maximum amount of opportunities to help improve yields crops by the use of increased fertilizer and water irrigation systems for the fertile land.
  • The rise in demand for organic farm vegetables and fruits.
  • Bio-Diesel will provide improved demand for oilseeds.
  • Small Scale farmers mastering the technical skills with hone their talent to find prospect into the commercial industry.

Threats

  • Change of Climate in Sub-Sahara Africa will reduce the chances of crop production.
  • The majority of African farm’s lands are less than 2 hectares in size with an increase in transaction costs.
  • Sub-Saharan African Farmers are provided with the minimum incentive as compared to other countries of the world.
  • Pest and Weeds diseases in crops provide severe harm to field production.
  • The huge import competition provides serious harm to local farming trade.

Despite having all these positive and negative points, the future of agriculture in Africa is on a steady rise. The influx of modern and innovative mechanized farming is changing the face of farming in the country.

How Tractors Assist In Dairy Farming

Dairy Farming is an exclusive category of farming that provides a complete cycle of producing, processing, and delivering dairy products especially milk. Milk is the largest dairy product retrieved from dairy farms by taking good care of animals. Other than milk, there are plenty of dairy products also produced such as cheese, butter, and curd. It requires a whole process of milk production and distribution to consumers. It has a background history dated back from 11,000 years ago where cattle were used to breed in a domestic home environment for a purpose of milk production.

The cows are fed with organic feed to enable them to give out a maximum amount of milk. Apart from cows, there are also some other animal species used for milking such as goats, sheep, and camels. There are many different ways of milking including hand milking, vacuum bucket milking, milking pipelines, milking parlors, and fully automatic robotic milking.

what is the uses of agricultural equipment?

Tractors and farm implements

agriculture equipment used for plouging, harvesting, tilling and cultivating field crops. They have also plenty of usages in other kinds of farming like cattle farming and dairy farming. They play a pivotal role in the dairy farming industry as they provide extensive assistance to farmers in performing various kinds of tasks such as pumping out of milk from the mammary glands of cows, storage, and delivery. They also provide immense help in cleaning out of barns and milking parlor as well as harvesting of agriculture field crops.

There is also much use of implements attachments in dairy farming, for instance, hayfork which can be easily mounted on the front side of the tractor to manually remove hay used for animal fodder. Some implements can also be attached to the rear side of tractors like manure spreaders and seeders for chopping outfeed for animals. The trailer can also be attached to a tractor for ease of dairy milk delivery transportation to the processing plant for a channel distribution to customers.

Tractors PK have been providing core assistance to farmers from all over the world whether in Tanzania or Botswana, Be a traditional farmer or a dairy farmer. Our tractors and implements have been used by the farmer of all scales. Our dedication and quality in this regard has been fruitful for both ends. If you would like to know about our agricultural tractors and implements please do kindly contact us on the following and our experienced sales staff will quickly get in touch with you.

Future Of Agriculture Farming

Future of Agriculture is on the steady rise with a bright future ahead to foresee many technological advancements with better ways of organic farming. In the modern era of the 21st century, the world is moving on towards smart agriculture farming methods.

Smart Agriculture is a new sustainable approach to help increase the cultivation of agriculture crops, adopting modern techniques to protect the soil from the drastic climate fluctuation, and finding safer ways to eliminate harmful greenhouse emissions by means of planting forest trees to have a healthy green farming environment around the world. The core reason is to produce enormous food supply to meet the growing demand of the ever-increasing population and to eradicate vicious poverty.

Food Security is becoming an alarming need for human beings in the world to find ways to produce more variety of freshly grown fruits and vegetables to feed for millions of people in the world. Precision Agriculture is the new face of concept-based agriculture farming which will provide a true blend of advanced innovative technologies to help observe,  measure, and respond to both inter and intra-field variability in crops. Its main goal is to provide a decision support system for the entire farm management by means of optimizing returns on inputs by proper utilization of resources.  It is a modern technique being employed to provide ease to farmers in keeping up all records of their farm by means of data collection and implementing technology for better managing field crops such as global positioning system (GPS) and geographic information system (GIS).

The variable rate of farming equipment also will be helpful in all kinds of seeding and spreading functions. Some of the other emerging technologies will be robots, drones technology, satellite remote sensing, and the internet of things (IOT).

Role Of Tractor And Implements In Farming

Role of Tractor and Implements will be much higher in future of agriculture as these are the core elements in the flourishing of agriculture farming. In the modern era of technology, there will be more advanced tractors introduced with the versatility of performance and extreme level of efficiency to provide simplicity in easily executing complex kinds of farming tasks.

There will be many different varieties of tractors such as compact utility tractors, raw crop tractors, industrial tractors, garden tractors, and earth moving tractors. The electric drive, Zero-emission, and driverless autonomous tractors are the new innovation in field farming tractors which will be going to provide an extreme level of ease to farmers by fulfilling all tasks in an efficient and effective manner.

The demand for implements will also increase in future as they will help supplement tractors for a variety of functions with less effort and time for farmers. There will be a huge list of many valuable implements like combine harvesters, mowers, seed drill, sprayers, harrows, mouldboard plough, disc plough, chisel plough, cultivators, backhoe machine, front end and back end loaders.

Tractors and Implements will always play an integral role in maintaining a better condition of soil with better crop cultivation. Tractors.PK is the reputed name in supplying superior quality branded farming tractors with attached implements for efficient task performance.

Uses of Tractor in Construction Industry

The construction industry is said to be the most vital sector which is ever rising with a booming trend in the world. It covers all diverse areas of architecture design structure and heavy concrete construction of roads, bridges, residential and commercial buildings. There are plenty of elements that are directly involved in the entire process of construction such as engineering services, contractor services, and labor services. All these elements are put together for better quality construction. It all requires proper well-thought planning, design structure, skilled workforce, and the finest quality material in order to have a strong durable solid construction.

The basic construction is comprised of some of the essential types such as fire-resistive, non-combustible, ordinary type, heavy timber, wood frame, steel structure, composite structure, reinforced concrete, and pre-engineered building construction.

Are Tractors Used in Construction?

Tractors play an essential role in the construction industry as they provide a true sense of ease for laborers to perform many different construction tasks and make a lot of simplification with a quick job done.

Nowadays, tractors are made of a compact shape structure with a rugged solid design to capture less amount of space with more strength and efficient performance. These small robust tractors are widely used in various kinds of road and building construction applications. They are perfectly attached with implements for performing different kinds of construction activities, for instance, a tractor-trolley which is mainly used for transporting material stuff from one place to another. The front end loader, back-end loader, skid steer, and backhoe, etc. The loaders provide a lot of uses in construction such as moving aside or load materials, demolition of debris, dirt, snow, gravel, rocks, and sand. These are basically used for lifting the construction waste for cleaning away the road site.

What is the best tractor company?

Tractors PK is providing valuable services in the construction industry by offering top quality reliable branded tractors with implements attachments for performing a diverse variety of tasks in road and building construction.

Top Farm Tractors Export from Pakistan to Africa

Tractors Export from Pakistan

Pakistan is a growing market of major farm tractors exports as it has an increasing demand and value among customers. The Made in Pakistan tractors are heavily exported to various countries of the world including Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, and Ghana, etc. Being an agriculture market, Pakistan boosts a wide range of opportunities for exporting top quality reliable, and durable tractor farming machinery in both domestic and foreign countries.

What is the number 1 selling tractor?

There are some of the renowned tractor brands in Pakistan namely Massey Ferguson, New Holland, IMT Tractors, Belarus Tractors, Ursus, Euro Ford, and John Deere. Let us describe popular tractor brands exports from Pakistan to Africa:

Is Massey Ferguson a good tractor?

260 turbo massey ferguson

Massey Ferguson is the leading tractor brand in Pakistan with a huge amount of exports to various different regions of the world. It provides a versatile range of top-quality compact and medium-sized tractors according to the exact requirements of customers. It offers robust and rugged farm tractors with an extreme amount of ease and efficiency for farmers to perform all kinds of farming chores in less time. In Pakistan, it is offered with plenty of different model range such as MF 240, MF 260, MF375, MF385, and MF 385 (4WD) a variety of horsepower capacities from 55 HP to 85 HP specifications.

New Holland

New Holland is the second most notable tractor brand in Pakistan which holds significant value and demand among customers in a country. NH Tractors are specifically designed with superior quality and show a true sense of reputation and perfection. It is made of a sleek shiny rigid design structure with powerful engine performance. It is a premium class tractor brand marketed by AL-Ghazi tractors which holds a sound prestige in the agriculture market by exporting genuine quality finest tractors around the globe. It offers NH 480, NH 480 SP, NH GHAZI, and NH 640 tractors with all implements attachments.

BELARUS TRACTORS

Belarus Tractors are 4-wheeled series of tractors designed with sheer precision and sound perfection. These are highly popular brand tractors among farmers in Pakistan and known for their superior class quality and long-term durability. These tractors are offered with different varieties of tractors, specialized tractors, special-purpose machinery, and forest machinery. They are made by Minsk Tractor Works with a robust solid rugged design structure and ideally used for rural farming and loading purposes. The Belarus 510, 510.2, and 80.1 are highly demanded tractors in Pakistan.

URSUS TRACTORS

Ursus tractors are Polish brand imported tractors and agricultural machinery including tractors, loaders, green forage straw and hyaline, spreading and fertilizers, trailers, cultivation and sowing, crop protection, as well as biomass production. These tractors possess high resale value in Pakistan with less fuel consumption, last long durability, as well as affordable repair and maintenance. The most valuable tractor models in Pakistan are Ursus 2812, 3512, and 4512.

IMT TRACTORS

IMT Tractors are popularly known as Industry of Machinery and Tractors manufactured in Belgrade, Serbia. It produces IMT 549, 565, and 577 Model agriculture farming tractors in Pakistan with huge market demand and value among farmers due to their solid rigid design and high-end performance.

Evolution Of Tractors: From Oxen To Machinery

Tractors have become a very important part in the agriculture business as it is machine which needed for everyday use. In the beginning when tractors were not invented oxen and buffalo’s were used for ploughing the field and pulling heavy objects but this was very tiring for the person as well as the animals and the output was very low.
 
Since the tractors were invented lives of the farmers were made very easy as they didn’t have to do most of the heavy work as the tractor could do it with ease. The first tractors were introduced in the 19th century when steam engines were used to power the tractor, these were very useful and it was only the first step to make more advanced and heavy duty tractors.
 
Oxen to machinery
 
With the introduction of tractors cultivation and other farm work was made easy and it could be done at a higher speed thus
increasing the output. By the end of the 1860s the new and evolved form of tractor engines had been invented and it was widely used for agricultural purposes.
 
Steam powered tractors were a great innovation but it didn’t have enough power to operate in all sorts of conditions, in many places often a pair of tractors were used which would pull different implements together may be because it was too heavy for them. However steam powered tractors became a huge hit in the United States and it was used by many of the farmers. Steam powered tractors remained in use for a very long time until the 20th century when internal combustion engines were invented.
 
The first Gasoline powered tractor was introduced in 1892 by John Froelich. He used a Van Duzen single-cylinder gasoline engine was set on a Robinson engine chassis which could be controlled by a gear box. However his engine didn’t receive positive reviews and by 1895 he went out of business. The idea of a gas engine was not a failure and was adopted by many inventors, Dan Al bone who was a British inventor built the first successful gasoline powered engine in 1901 and when he filed a patent on 15 February 1902 and formed his agricultural company. 
 
Tractors have always been evolved and it was till 1926 when Harry Ferguson started his company called the Ferguson Brown Company. He later on accepted collaboration with ford and introduced a new line of Ford-Ferguson tractors.

 

 

Al-Ghazi: Plowing ahead

A subsidiary of the Al-Futtaim group of Dubai, Al-Ghazi Tractors Limited is a manufacturer of New Holland tractors in technical co-operation with Case New Holland, the foremost manufacturer of agricultural tractors in the world. Being a household name amongst the farming community, AGTL has a widespread presence across Pakistan, with as many as 82 dealers and 3,000 mechanical workshops spread all over the country. Following the fiasco that was last year, AGTLs half-yearly records show that the company is on the much firmer ground this time around. While 2011 started out on a great note -with Al-Ghazi managing to post a record profit of Rs972.8 million during 1QFY11, which was incidentally the highest since its inception- the following quarters saw a crash in the market following the sudden imposition of a 16 percent sales tax on agricultural equipment.

In the months to follow, AGTL, along with other tractor manufacturers, witnessed tractor sales plummet dangerously and had to suffer long stretches of the plant closure. Fast forward nearly a year, and the second quarter ended sales of nearly Rs4.6 billion- jumping 29 percent from the same period last year – are a testament to the fact that the company is back on track following its previous trajectory of success. Whereas a comparison with sales figures from the same period last year reveals unnaturally flattering growth statistics due to the low-base effect, a comparison of sales against the same period in 2010 reveals a healthy increase of 4 percent during the 2QFY12. However, a similar comparison between FY11 and FY12 at half-year draws negatives for 2012, mainly because of the exceptional first quarter that AGTL had in FY11 which saw them selling 8,602 tractors as compared to 6,004 that were delivered during the first quarter of FY12. Following the company’s initiative to engage pro-actively with farmers and introduce a newer version of agricultural implements, sales have gone up to Rs 7.9 billion at the half year-mark and the pent-up demand from last year means that they are likely to go up higher in the coming quarters.

With profit after taxation going up to Rs596 million versus Rs510 million that was recorded during the second quarter, earnings have climbed up to Rs13.88 per share as compared to an EPS of Rs 11.89 per share recorded at the close of 2QFY11. Looking forward, production and demand for the locally manufactured agricultural implements are likely to remain strong. During the first quarter, AGTL recorded bookings for 9,234 tractors, out of which it could produce only 4,350 units. Similarly, the Sindh government has also announced the launch of the 3rd leg of its rural incentive scheme which will see the distribution of 6,000 tractors among farmers at a subsidized rate. Subsequently, the backlog of orders and demand glut for tractors is therefore likely to keep the industry steady on its feet and AGTL thriving in the coming months.

Millat Tractor Ltd Introduces its New Tractor Models Massey Ferguson 350 Plus and Massey Ferguson 360

Which tractors are made in Pakistan?

Millat Tractors Limited (MTL) launched its two new tractor models Massey Ferguson 350 Plus (50 hp) & Massey Ferguson 360 (60 hp) on July 04, 2013, in Pakistan. The new Massey Ferguson tractors have been manufactured keeping in view the farming needs of small and medium-scale farmers while staying cost-effective. New tractor models Massey Ferguson 350 Plus & Massey Ferguson 360 are equipped with robust straddle rear axle, epicyclic reduction unit, hydrostatic power steering, and oil-immersed multi-disc brakes. Guests present at the event admired the features of the new tractor models. The company with the induction of new tractor models in its fleet now offers eight tractor models from 50 hp to 100 hp range. These tractors best suit our agro-climatic conditions, the size of the farms, and the buying capacities of the various segment of the farmers. Please have a look image of the new Massey tractor models.

Massey Ferguson 350 Plus

Massey Ferguson 350 Plus Tractor

Massey Ferguson 360 Turbo

Massey Ferguson 360 Tractor Source: http://www.millat.com.pk

History of Agriculture

What is Agriculture?

Agriculture is a basic necessity for all human beings in the world and has been derived from the two essential terms of “Agri” n “Cultura” which means field and cultivation. It has an ancient historical background initially originated back from 20,000 BC with the domestication of plants and animals. Prior to agriculture, people used to live a nomadic hunter-style living as they hunt for animals and move out of the city to city with not any permanent place of residence. As the flock of animals started to move to other places, there was having a lack of food supply that was a time when people started a new way of plant cultivation system for a proper systematic arrangement of food supply for them on a constant basis. The first agricultural cultivation was started off in South Western Asia and Northern Africa with plantations of wild grains, barley, peas, lentils, chickpeas, and linen fiber. From that time on, agricultural farming became a strong need and necessity for humans to supplementing their food supply with an increase in population. The history of agriculture has been mainly categorized into different stages of prehistory, early civilization, modern agriculture farming, and ecological organic farming.

Pre-Historic Agriculture
The pre-historic era of agriculture describes the Stone Age nomadic hunter living when there was a tradition of making a prey of wild animals to serve as edible food. There was not a proper arrangement of a provision of the food supply. Due to climatic change and the retreating of glaciers, nomadic communities started to have a permanent settlement and initiated cultivating for food.

Early Agriculture Civilization
Early Civilization Era of Agriculture was started somewhere around 5000 BC. It was a time when there was a significant increase in agriculture cultivation with Sumerian, Egyptian, Indus Valley, ancient Chinese, Greek, and Roman civilization.  The Mesoamerica, Southern America, Northern America, and Australia are also valuable countries to flourish agriculture field farming.

Modern Agriculture Farming
The modernized farming era was introduced with the British agriculture revolution between the sixteenth and the mid-nineteenth century. They adopted the newest modes of mechanized farming techniques such as four-field crop rotation for maintaining soil nutrients and employed scientific fertilizing methods for boosting up soil productivity.

Organic Ecological Farming
Organic Ecological Farming is an eco-friendly way of agriculture farming that helps in increasing genetic diversity, natural soil cultivation, fertile soil structure, pests, and weeds control. It helps produces crops with better nutrition for a healthy root plantation system and also to maintain sustainable land fertility and biological soil activity. It minimizes in-organic waste and maximized crop productivity by avoiding conventional chemical pest fertilizers. It protects the healthy ecological environment with green manure, crop rotation, and mineral.  The no-till agriculture practice helps provide organic productive soil conditions with better results. Agriculture has a long transition from ancient to the modern way of farming. Tractors.pk is a leading supplier of advanced branded tractors which provides ease of farming and helps increases efficiency in performing complicated tasks in a simplified manner with less time and effort to raise productivity.