Types of Farming Methods Practiced in India

Farming in India has been an age-old primitive occupation. It won’t be an exaggeration that the Indian agricultural sector has been the primary backbone and one of the critical factors in the Indian economy to flourish.

From ancient times, agriculture has been practiced in India and has evolved through centuries to gain the present form. Along its long way, it adapted to different farming methods, techniques, agricultural equipment like a farm tractor and started practicing farming with the new changes.

Hence, contrary to what is assumed by many, Indian farmers have made it possible to efficiently flourish their fields with greenery despite the weather conditions, rainfall uncertainty, famines, drought-like conditions, and inadequate infrastructural facilities.

This was made possible with the help of adapting to new challenges and partnering with new techniques and practices that proved to be beneficial for agricultural growth.

Now without wasting time, let’s get to the point.

Types of Farming Methods Practiced in India

Farming practices usually depend on the terrain, soil conditions, climate, irrigation facility or water supply, and other favourable conditions in that particular region.

Indian agricultural system too depends on eight main types of farming practices according to the phenomenon mentioned above.

• Subsistence Farming
• Commercial Farming
• Intensive Farming
• Dry Agriculture
• Mixed and Multiple Agriculture
• Crop Rotation
• Terrace Cultivation

Subsistence Farming

Subsistence farming is basically the traditional farming system, which was primitively practiced to fulfil the farmer’s family’s needs. Sufficient with minimum tools and equipment and household labour, subsistence farming doesn’t need anything more.

The yield is less, electricity and irrigation facilities are not adequate, and most of the process is done manually, resulting in smaller output. Neither high variety seeds nor fertilizers are available nor needed in this small-scale farming.

Subsistence farming is of two types:

Intensive Subsistence Farming 

Intensive subsistence farming includes a small farm of land for growing crops, low-cost and straightforward tools, and more labour. The word intensive means hard work, so it means it requires more labour. With the kind of climate suitable for this method, with sunshine and fertile soils, growing more than one crop annually in the same land is possible. 

Primitive subsistence farming

Primitive subsistence farming is also known as shifting cultivation. Primitive subsistence farming also includes the other primitive farming types like nomadic herding, livestock rearing, and fisheries. But here, we will be concentrating only on the shifting cultivation.

Shifting cultivation

This cultivation is spread in thickly forested areas like northeast India. These are the areas of heavy rainfall. It is a quick regeneration of vegetation. The process of shifting cultivation starts with clearing all the land by falling trees and burning them. Then the ash of the trees is mixed with the land soil. Crops are grown in this land for 2 or 3 years. Then the land is left out because of fertilizers, harmful chemicals, and the natural being squeezed out of the soil decreases its nourishing power. Once the soil or that piece of land isn’t further beneficial, farmers move to the other land to repeat this process. You may know this system by different names like Jhum, ponam, podu, slash and burn agriculture, etc.

Commercial Farming

Commercial farming means that the crops are growing for sale in the market, and a profit will be earned from it. The primary purpose of this farming is business. It requires large areas and a high level of technology, like advanced equipment like large farm tractors, harvesters, tillers, etc.

Commercial farming is further divided into three key types depending on their practices and components.

Commercial grain farming is done for grains in the winter season, in which only a single crop is grown at one time.

Commercial mixed farming is done for growing foods, fodder crops, with one or more crops grown simultaneously. It needs good rainfall and irrigation facility and is done almost during the same duration.

Commercial plantation farming requires much labour and large areas for crops like tea, coffee, cotton, rubber, etc. These are all tree crops. This type of farming practice is mostly done in hilly areas like Assam, sub-Himalayan, Nigiri, and West Bengal. It takes a long period to mature the crops, but these are kept for long periods.

Intensive Farming

Intensive farming, also known as industrial agriculture, is practiced in areas where irrigation has been possible. The farmers use fertilizers and pesticides on a large scale. They have brought their land under a high-yielding variety of seeds. They have mechanized agriculture by introducing machines in various processes of farming.

This farming type is characterized by a low fallow ratio and higher use of inputs such as capital and labour per unit land area. This is in contrast to traditional agriculture, in which the inputs per unit of land are lower.

Dry Agriculture

Dry farming or dryland farming is defined as growing crops without irrigation in areas that receive an annual rainfall of 750 mm – 500 mm or even less.

Dryland agriculture is subject to high variability in areas sown, yields and output. These variations are the results of weather conditions, especially rainfall.

Mixed and Multiple Agriculture:

It is referred to the cultivation of crops and raising of animals simultaneously. It is used to denote the practice of growing two or more crops together. In this farming, a number of crops having varying maturing periods are sown at the same time. This practice is followed in areas having good rainfall or facilities of irrigation.

Crop Rotation

This type of farming practice refers to the growing number of crops one after the other in a fixed rotation to maintain soil fertility. The rotation of crops may be complete in some areas, while it may involve more than one year in others.

Highly fertilizer-intensive crops like sugarcane or tobacco are rotated with cereal crops. The selection of crops for rotation depends upon the local soil conditions and the experience and the understanding of the farmers.

Terrace Cultivation:

This farming is practiced in hilly and mountainous regions. The hill and mountain slopes are cut to form terraces, and the land is used in the same way as in permanent agriculture.

Since the availability of flat land is limited, terraces are made to provide a small patch of level land. Soil erosion is also controlled due to terrace formation on hill slopes.

5 Ways Tractor Can Improve Your Farming

Ever since there has been a significant improvement in the state of farming equipment in India, the role of modern tractors has become much more critical, with tractors being used on farms to automate a lot of agricultural responsibilities. Modern tractors are helpful in many ways, be it ploughing the field, clearing bushes, tilling, spreading fertilizers, or planting. Some farmers also use the tractor as a tool to take care of their lawns and maintain their landscape areas on a daily basis.

Tractors have become the foundation of modern farming. Tractors are used in the field and the garden for each activity, from tilling to spraying and seeding to harvesting. The arrival of the tractor has changed the way farms look and operate over the years, as they have increased the farmer's ability to maintain more land and produce crops faster and more efficiently than ever.

What were the immediate changes tractor effected?

The advent of the tractor has allowed the farmer to specialize in crops and livestock breeding, which transformed the farm economy into a commercial crop structure and has increased the efficiency of farmers and that of the farm.

Before the arrival of tractors, farmers grew crops that were sufficient to feed themselves and their cattle. The tractor helped change this standard equation. Farmers now started getting engaged in selling their crops to purchase fuel and maintain their tractors, thus motivating them to increase their income. Depending on cash rather than an element of subsistence, they became more susceptible to financial awareness due to their dependence on the often-volatile markets for their crops and petrol.

The tractor changed the way the land was used before, and the crops farmers grew also now planned and strategized to gain more profit. Before, farmers had to provide a section of their land to grow manure crops and grass to feed their livestock. Petrol tractors freed farmers from this need and allowed them to devote that space to more commercial cash crops like wheat, bajra, jowar, sugarcane, cotton, etc.

Due to the increased efficiency and productivity tractors brought, farms became more cultivable, as farmers could now handle more land and farm activities.

Five ways tractor improved farming

Tractors have been a revolutionary factor for the agricultural industry to develop. With many tractor models introduced until now, we have been able to see significant improvements to the industry as a whole, and new techniques and technologies, and farming methods have contributed to the overall development.

Let's check out some of the benefits that tractors have provided to the farmers.

Less use of animals

Bullocks and other farm animals usually need to be fed and cared for throughout the year, which used to be highly time-consuming and extra work for farmers. Likewise, these animals must set aside some part of the land to harvest enough feed manure to sustain the animal. 

With tractors coming, this land can now be used for growing extra crops instead of harvesting manure feed. Also, cattle maintenance and the associated expenses too have become less. Animals too cannot be harmed now, as most of their work is done by a tractor.

Increased Income

Tractor producers have recorded their highest ever sales in recent years. Selling over lakhs of units, which shows the popularity of tractors among the farmers, indicates that farmers are opening up to the idea of investing in multi-purpose tractors.

With large-scale cultivation, farmers are gaining large-scale production yield and thus can increase their income compared to when they were dependant on manual or cattle help.

It must be noticed that since tractors come with such an excellent feature to suit specific tasks and necessities, farmers can work with several options, for instance, mini tractors with a range of horsepower range of 15-25hp are perfect for small-scale landscaping works and farm duties such as tunnelling, transportation or tilling on extensive grounds, medium grounds and gardens. This reduces their dependence on other allied activities.

Besides utilizing a tractor that consumes fuel, farmers can now save money and increase overall revenues due to the fact that it costs much more to take care of animals continually.

Improved Efficiency

While tractors themselves have provided increased efficiency for speed and consistency, technology such as crop yield monitors and GPS field navigation has also helped farmers map their crop yields and soil quality across every single inch of their farm. Ultimately, these GPS devices can help significantly with crop management.

A good example would be the two-wheeled tractor, another favourite farmer-friendly tractor due to its self-powering and self-propelling nature. The tractor can pull and control numerous farms implements such as a cultivator, a harrow, a trailer, a plough and harvesters, seed drills, a rotovator, etc. 

Reduced physical activity

Farmers now do not need to rely on their cattle or laborers to carry out any particular farming task. It's just a matter of time, and the work is done within no time with the help of a farm tractor.

Fewer hours in the field and lengthy reduced workdays help cut down on fatigue, allowing for more work to be done overall and the ability to meet any deadlines.

Resilience 

Tractors are characteristically created with controlling engines to collide with rough lands and pull tremendously heavy masses, making them operative in hard-hitting and undeveloped landscapes. Modern tractors are also becoming cheaper by the day, coming with additional features such as cast-iron front axles, reaper-harvesters, etc.

Easy operability of Tractors

Since most farmers are required to spend most of their day out in the field, it is challenging for them to study heavy instructions and follow them while using their farming equipment.

Modern tractors, however, have features such as power shift transmission and hydro-static transmission, which make the operations a lot easier. In addition to that, most modern tractors also feature power steering options, making them more accessible. Some advanced models help decrease operator exhaustion with designer shift panels and a mechanically receptive transmission.

Conclusion 

Tractors are used for many important functions like ploughing, tilling, and landing fields, in addition to regular lawn care, landscape maintenance, transfer or spreading fertilizers, and weed cleaning.

Modern agricultural methods aim to get a very high yield of farm production. It is also important to get a good profit out of the farm yields. Implementing a good number of tools has now become the precursor for a good and fruitful harvest.

These multifunctional tractors are one of the best inventions of humankind and are serving our farming community through all odds.