Agriculture TNT

Agriculture sector has undergone quite a transformation in the past decade or so. The rapid advancement in technology has had a subsequent impact on this sector too. This impact is visible in the increased use of hi-tech farming machinery and top-of-the-range Agriculture Implements. With the rapid growth of human population in the last two centuries, agricultural production has also increased exponentially. Now this would not have been possible without advanced Agriculture Implements. There are many types of Agriculture Implements available in the market.

Benefits Of Agriculture Implements
Agricultural Implements came as a replacement to traditional methods and handmade equipment.
Agriculture Implements have tremendously reduced the requirement of manpower.
These implements therefore have made farming a faster process than it used to be earlier. They are highly efficient.
With advanced Agriculture Implements, tasks like drenching, sowing, etc. can be done over a wide area. Agriculture Implements are very easy to use.
Day-to-day technological developments have led to innovative concepts and new designs in Agriculture Implements.
From cutting to processing of crops, all are done in a comparatively short span of time with the use of Agriculture Implements.
Irrigating the fields with Agriculture Implements ensure complete and equal irrigation, even if it is done over a very large area.
Agriculture Implements make the whole process of farming very easy and comparatively faster.
Using Agriculture Implements enables one to greatly increase the rate as well as amount of production.

Well, Agriculture Implements is a very wide category; it can, in fact, refer to the whole set of agriculture machinery. The list of all Agriculture Implements is very long but some of the commonly used Agriculture Implements are:
.Hydraulic Tubes
.Chisel plow
.Rotator
.Spike harrow and Drag harrow
.Sprayer
.GI Pipes

Based in Chandigarh, India, Bhartiya Manufacturing Industries is a, 1982 established, reputed Manufacturer and Supplier of Agriculture Implements. It is also a leading ERW Pipe Manufacturer In India. Some of the other widely used products of the company are MS Rectangular Pipes, Precision Tubes, Hydraulic Tubes, Seamless Boiler Tubes, Fuel Injection Pipes, Alloy Steel Pipes, Bush Rings, Stainless Steel Pipes, Agriculture Implements, Lancing Pipe and Rectangular Steel Tubes. All the products of Bhartiya Manufacturing Industries are reasonably priced. For further information of the company or to know in details about the products, one can go the website www.bmipipes.in.

The vast Indo-Gangetic Plain, extending from Punjab to Assam, is most intensively farmed zone of the world. Since independence contribution of agriculture to GDP has seen a decline, even after the green revolution. Our economic security concerns still depend upon agriculture as still 58% of the population is dependent on Agriculture compared to 75% at the time of independence. Around 51% of Indias geographical area is already under cultivation as compared to 11% of the world average. India leads the world in production of a few agriculture commodities. It is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconut, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper. It is the second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, groundnut and inland fish. It is the third largest producer of tobacco. India accounts for 10 per cent of the world’s fruit production, ranking first in production of banana and sapota. The total food production in India is likely to double in the next ten years and there is an opportunity for large investments in food processing technologies, skills and equipment, especially in areas of Canning, Dairy and Food Processing, Specialty Processing, Packaging, Frozen Food/Refrigeration and Thermo Processing, Fruits & Vegetables, Fisheries, Milk & Milk Products, Meat & Poultry, Packaged/Convenience Foods, vegetable production, organic farming ,agriculture waste management,vermi-compost,production of Alcoholic Beverages & Soft Drinks and Grains are important sub-sectors of the food processing industry.
The potential that the country has is yet to be exploited for best output . If we look at it as livelihood activity we find 50 percent of the population contributing only 17% of the GDP. The agriculture growth is less than the growth of the economy. In spite of having good percentage of fertile soil, average yield in India is about 30% to 50% than that of world. So what are the factors that Govt. agencies and NGOs need to look at before implementing agro based livelihood projects?
UN establishes that India needs to do resource mobilization, improve project management and implementation in rural areas. Like providing advanced farming skills to farmers, irrigation facilities to overcome water shortage, proper storage facilities, better market linkages and high value for the produce, improve availability of high-yield varieties of seeds and advanced research and development should be done to improve per-hectare yield of crops in India. The govt. and research institutes are working on stem cell research, nanotechnology to improve the yield but our nation is much dependent on the monsoon and major areas of the country are facing severe droughts.
Despite various schemes like Gramin Bhandaran Yojna, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, National Food Security Mission, National Horticulture Mission etc. and increased grant allocation from Rs 5560.00 crore in 2007-08 to Rs. 20208.00 crore in 2012-13 still everyday there are news of farmer suicides and why not when farmers earn merely Rs 1500 per month. Efforts should be made by Government, Donors, CSR organizations, NGOs to increase their income by enhancing their skills in modern agricultural techniques and practices which would increase the yield, contract farming, group farming, cooperatives, multi cropping techniques, production of cash crops, credit facilities etc. should be promoted so that the risks can be mitigated and their standard of living can be improved. Packaging and marketing of the produce should be the priority. One Block One Product is an efficient way to promote produces at national and international level. The ambitious project of connecting the major rivers should be implemented before its too late. With all these efforts we hope that the present situation gets better and the Agriculture sector gets revamped.

Our current agricultural practices are a major contributor to climate change. A whopping 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the way we grow, process, distribute and consume food, and an additional 18% are due to deforestation largely driven by the clearing of forests for agricultural land. This problem can only intensify as our population grows. Imagine how many more greenhouse gasses will be pumped into our atmosphere in 2050 when the estimated world population reaches 9.1 billion. Without a drastic change to the way we produce food, we simply wont survive.

Traditional agriculture, and even organic agriculture, relies heavily on tilling the soil to prepare the ground for planting. Tilling, however, has a number of undesirable side-effects, such as: soil erosion, loss of organic matter, destruction of living soil microbes, dependence on heavy machinery, loss of soil structure, loss of nutrients and soil compaction. However, there is another negative side-effect of tilling that many people may be unaware of, and that is carbon oxidization. Tilling causes the carbon in the soil to be oxidized which releases it (the carbon) into the atmosphere. This, of course, increases greenhouse gasses and contributes to climate change.

Over the past 30 -40 years there have been people experimenting with no-till agriculture. No-till agriculture uses a range of practices so that tilling is rarely or never used, resulting in the following advantages: improved soil structure, better water and nutrient holding capacity and less use of machinery. However, one of the biggest advantages of no-till agriculture is that the soil can store much more carbon. This means that there will be more carbon in the plants and soil and less in the atmosphere. In other words, agriculture has the potential to become a fighter against climate change. Wouldnt that be a turnaround?

So far, no-till agriculture has been heavily dependent on herbicides. When I attended agricultural college in the late eighties, no-till agriculture was in its early developmental stages. It was seen as unorthodox and alternative a little way out. We were taught that paddocks needed to be sprayed out with herbicide first. The dead plants, which were called stubble, were left standing. Then seed was sown through the stubble, using a direct-drilling method. The stubble offered soil protection and increased biomass, which is great. However, the method was completely dependant on chemical herbicides.

The organic industry, which is generally seen as an environmentally positive industry, does things quite differently. They use a combination of green-manure crops and tilling. Green-manure crops, such as oats, millet, clover, and many more, are commonly used and sown into a paddock prior to planting the target species. For example, lets say our target species is corn. Prior to the corn being planted in spring, a green-manure crop, such as oats, is planted out in autumn and allowed to grow through winter. In spring, the oats are tilled into the soil and the corn is sown. This is an excellent way of building soil biomass and soil nutrients; however, you still have the negative effects of soil tillage, mainly the release of carbon into the atmosphere.

As you can see, both no-till and organic agriculture have their pros and cons. No-till methods store carbon but rely on chemicals. Organic farming uses no chemicals but relies on tilling.

A method that combined the soil protection of no-till farming and the non-toxicity of organic farming would be ideal agricultural heaven. There are people around the world who are working towards this ideal. These pioneers, referred to as no-till organic farmers, are still working out a few bugs.

With this revolutionary method, a green-manure cover crop is planted out prior to the target crop. However, when the time comes to plant the target species, the green-manure crop is not tilled into the soil, and neither is it killed with herbicide. Rather than being tilled or sprayed, the green-manure crop is killed using a mechanical method called crinking. A large roller with blunt blades set at intervals is rolled over the green-manure crop. The blades crink, but not cut, the stems of the cover crop. It also flattens the cover crop so that it becomes a dense, dead organic matt covering the soil. Then seed is sown using a direct-drilling method through the dead matt. The dead green-manure crop is still attached to the soil via its dying roots. This offers excellent soil protection and the dense matt offers weed suppression and moisture retention. It also increases soil biomass and builds nutrients.

The beauty of this method is the fact that agricultural land can act as a giant carbon sink. This is a complete turnaround as agriculture is presently a major producer of greenhouse gasses. It is believed that no-till farming has the potential to store a staggering 3000 pounds (1360 kilograms) of carbon per acre. No-till organic farming has the potential to become a major fighter against climate change, and provide healthy, chemical-free food at the same time.

On a small scale, no-till organic food production is actually very easy. Food4wealth is an ideal example of this revolutionary way of producing food. Food4wealth is a small-scale, easy-to-follow, organic food-growing method that retains a dense coverage of plants and uses no tilling. A food4wealth plot is just like a mini-carbon sink. It takes carbon from the atmosphere and turns it into healthy, organic food.

For more information go to: Food4Wealth

by Jonathan White B.App.Sci. Assoc. Dip.App. Sci.

Images of smoke belching from the chimneys of factories, oil refineries or cars inching their way in a downtown street are typical images that come to one’s mind when one thinks of greenhouse emissions. On the other hand vast stretches of emerald fields and meadows nearby with flocks of sheep and cattle grazing idly conjure an image of perfect harmony with nature. This makes us believe that agriculture and animal husbandry are perfectly eco friendly occupations that do not threaten the atmosphere in any way.

The perfect picture post card scenario it seems is far from true according to scientists and agriculture experts and recent studies present a grim picture.

Let us take a quick look at the facts

. Agriculture accounts for 10% of all greenhouse emissions globally . Paddy fields in particular release 10 million tonnes of methane which is 20% of all human produced methane emission . Livestock comprising sheep and cattle are responsible for half of the global agricultural emissions with these animals releasing methane directly into the atmosphere. . A vast amount of nitrous oxide is released due to the decaying of manure.

A fast growing world population demanding a higher and higher output of both grains and meat forced more and more wetlands/peat lands to be brought under agriculture. These lands store an estimated 300 billion to 700 billion tonnes of carbon and their degradation results in massive volumes of carbon dioxide emissions averaging 2 to 3 billion tonnes a year which is the equivalent of 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

This truly is a catch 22 situation, while bringing more lands under cultivation and increasing the number of animals being reared for meat threatens the eco system, producing less crops and meat threatens to starve the world’s growing population. While we can reduce industrial emission to an extent by driving around lesser, sharing cars to work using public transport and implementing pollution control measures in factories, how can we stop increasing agricultural activity in proportion to need. This is a question that needs to be addressed by agricultural experts and scientists.

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Despite the ever increasing number of people who decide to move from the rural to have a taste of the urban life, it cannot be denied that farming is something that will not be a total threat to urbanization.

More or less our main concern is on the fact that a considerable number of the population decided to leave their jobs as farmers to try their luck in finding non-farming jobs. If this goes on, would there be adequate food to feed everybody?

Even if the world is constantly developing or progressing, it will not make any sense if food, healthy food at that, will no longer be accessible to all. Because of progress, the world may be able to afford to pay for the food they are going to eat but if the farmers gradually start to lose interest in farming or agriculture, then people might have to endure the consequences of modernization and urbanization. Our hope lies on the rest of the farmers who weren’t thinking about switching to a different career. Fortunately, because of progress and modernization, technology has made way for efficient forestry and agriculture equipment such as farm tractors (john deere, caterpillar and other famous brands), plows, tillers, loaders and other farming related innovations to help them deliver the best of their production.

Even rich people who decide to move out of the city because they want to live in a peaceful, healthy and stress-free suburb would also know the importance of eating healthy food that they are also into farming themselves. Some of them are buying large hectares of land and devote a large area for farming and agriculture, both for consumption and commercial purposes. Soon enough, we will already solve shortage of food production if we ourselves will put an effort to produce our own food, even if our planting or farming be limited only to growing selected vegetables, crops and fruit-bearing trees in our backyard.

If it’s any consolation, statistics has it that there are quite an incredible number of forestry and agriculture equipment purchase online. The sales of tractors, plows, loaders, tillers, other farm implements and attachments have increased lately to a good extent. It is a good sign that farming still has a future.