Mechanized Farming

If you brought a couple of farmers from a hundred years ago onto a modern farm, they'd be amazed at how much fancy equipment and technology are involved. From tractors that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to drones and combine harvesters, modern equipment is omnipresent in most farming operations worldwide. Tools and plows are not new to farming, but starting during the Green Revolution, a boom in the sales of farming equipment and machines changed the face of agriculture for good. Continue reading to learn about mechanized farming and its impact on farming.

Mechanized Farming Definition

Before modern times, farming was a very labor-intensive process. Dozens of people had to work fields that now might need only one farmer to manage. A key innovation leading to this boost in productivity is mechanized farming. Advanced powered machines and motor-driven vehicles like tractors replaced hand tools and the use of animals to pull farming implements.

Basic tools like shovels or sickles are not considered to be mechanized farming implements because they still require manual labor. Plows in and of themselves are also typically not included under the mechanized farming umbrella because for thousands of years they were powered by horses or oxen. Farming operations that still use animals for this are not considered mechanized.

Characteristics of Mechanized Farming

Returning to our farmers from one hundred years ago, what did their farms look like? If you just looked at the fields, probably not much different: rows of neatly planted crops, an innovation from the Second Agricultural Revolution. The stark difference comes once you look at how those crops were planted, how they're maintained, and how they're harvested.

Fig. 1 - Farm animals used to plow a field in France, 1944

These farmers probably used animals to pull a plow and seed drill and had their families go through the field and pull weeds and kill pests. Farming in many places looks different today thanks to agrochemicals and mechanized farming that came out of the Green Revolution. Some of the characteristics of mechanized farming are discussed next.

Dominant in Commercial Farming Operations

Today, commercial farms are universally mechanized in some form or another. Modern mechanical equipment is essential to making farms profitable because they lower labor costs and save time. This stands in contrast to subsistence farms, whose purpose is primarily to feed the farmer and their families/communities. Subsistence farming is dominant in less developed countries, where there may not be the capital to purchase tractors or other equipment in the first place. The high costs of farm equipment pose a barrier to entry towards mechanizing farms, and it's a cost that can typically only be offset by revenue from selling crops.

Greater Productivity

The mechanization of farms doesn't just mean the work is easier—it means fewer people are needed to grow the same amount of food. By reducing the time to plant and harvest as well as the number of people needed to work a farm, they subsequently are far more productive. Crop yields increase from mechanization too. Special equipment to plant seeds and harvest crops reduce the human error involved. Combined with agrochemicals, machines like crop dusters can cover a great area and prevent pests from harming crops.

Mechanized Farming Equipment

Different types of equipment are used for various purposes on mechanized farms. Let's discuss a few significant types of mechanized farming equipment below.

Tractor

No agricultural machine is more ubiquitous than the tractor. At its core, a tractor is a vehicle that provides high pulling power at slow speeds. The first tractors were little more than an engine and wheels with a steering wheel, but today are cutting-edge machines with advanced computing. Tractors are primarily used to pull plows that till the soil and equipment that plants seeds. Before the invention of engines, animals or humans had to move farm equipment. Engines are far more powerful than humans or animals, so they work much faster and more efficiently.

Combine Harvester

Sometimes just referred to as a combine, combine harvesters are designed to harvest various crops. The word "combine" comes from the fact that it performs numerous operations at once which otherwise are performed separately. The first combines originated during the Second Agricultural Revolution, but advances in technology during the Green Revolution made them even more effective and more accessible to mass produce. Today's combines are incredibly complex machines, with dozens of sensors and computers integrated to ensure the best function.

Sprayer

Often used with a tractor, sprayers distribute agrochemicals like pesticides and fertilizers over a field. Current crop sprayers have built-in sensors and computers that can change how much agrochemicals are sprayed and even know if an area has already received enough agrochemicals. This innovation allows for the effective use of pesticides that also minimizes the environmental risks from overuse.

Fig. 3 - Modern crop sprayer

Prior to the Green Revolution, rudimentary pesticides and fertilizers had to be distributed by hand, creating more health risks for the worker and potentially adding too many agrochemicals.

Mechanized Farming Examples

Next, let's see what mechanized farming looks like in a couple of countries.

United States

Agriculture in the United States is almost exclusively commercial and as such, is highly mechanized. It's home to some of the world's largest agricultural machinery firms like John Deere, Massey Ferguson, and Case IH. The US is home to many universities that conduct research in agricultural technology and is at the cutting edge of finding ways to improve and develop mechanization.

India

India greatly benefited from the Green Revolution, which spread the use of agrochemicals and mechanized farming. Today, its farming operations are increasingly mechanized, and it is the largest producer of tractors in the world. Despite this, many small farms in India still use animals and other by-hand traditional farming practices. Because increased productivity helps drive down the price of crops, there's been tension from poorer farmers who are seeing their income cut into by mechanization.

Disadvantages of Mechanized Farming

Not everything is positive for mechanized farming, however. While mechanized farming has enabled a massive boost in the amount of food available on the planet, it still has its shortcomings.

Not All Processes Can Be Mechanized

For some crops, mechanizing is simply impossible or isn't effective enough to justify. Plants like coffee and asparagus ripen at different times and require harvesting once ripe, so a machine can't come through and harvest all at once. For these types of crops, there's currently no replacement for human labor when it comes to harvesting.

Fig. 3 - Workers harvesting coffee in Laos

Unemployment and Social Tension

The increased productivity from mechanization has allowed food to become more readily available and affordable but also caused unemployment for agricultural workers. Under any circumstances, increased unemployment creates hardship and economic difficulty for people and regions. If there's no government response in helping people find employment in other industries, these issues are exasperated.

In some communities, the way they grow food is a way of life and essential to their sense of place. How seeds are planted and crops harvested might be tied to religious beliefs or celebrations that run counter to modern technology. Even if people choose to forgo adopting mechanization, they face pressure to compete with commercial operations that are far more productive owing to mechanization.