Impact of Farm Mechanization on Cropping Intensity, Production and Productivity

The status and growth of farm power in India and its different regions were determined to estimate the overall status of farm power in present scenario viz. farm power, cropping intensity and productivity. The Indian tractor industry is the largest in the world and accounts for one third of global production. The sale of tractors has grown at a CAGR of 11% from 247, 351 in 2004–05 to 696, 523 in 2013–14 and to 551, 463 in 2014–15 and similar was trend for power tillers also. Over the years the shift has been towards the use of mechanical and electrical sources of power and in 1960–61 about 92.30% farm power was coming from animate sources reduced to about 11.80% in 2013–14 and that of mechanical and electrical sources of power increased from 7.70% to about 88.20%. The country witnessed unprecedented growth in agriculture that helped country to graduate from hunger to self-sufficiency in food grains by increasing the food grain productivity from 0.636 t/ha in year 1965–66 to 2.111 t/ha in 2013–14, resulting for export with surplus. The cropping intensity increased with increase in per unit power availability. It was 114% with power availability of 0.32 kW/ha during 1965–66 that increased to about 142 per cent with increase in power availability of 2.02 kW/ha in 2013–14.