The Advances in Agriculture.

There was once a time when farmers used to plow the

land manually and it was one long hard task stretching
from dawn to dusk. So they put their heads together
and came up with the tractor. Cut to the 21st century
and farming has gone all high-tech and is talking
about GM foodand agricultural biotechnology.

The scientific advances have touched all the facets in the field of agriculture.
Thus agricultural machinery has witnessed a radical makeover from the days of
hand-held apparatus like trimmers and chainsaws to the modern day computer-
controlled, GPS-monitored and self-steerprograms that are virtually negating the
need for human intervention.

Agricultural technology is also making inroads into the relatively new but very
promising fields of nanotechnology and genetic engineering.

Health concerns have seen the soaring popularity of organic fruits and
vegetables. The organic variety of food is cultivated without using pesticides,
synthetic fertilizers and growth hormones. In the organic form of agriculture, food
processing is done without ionizing radiation and the use of food additives.
Artificiality is the bane now, only confined to the myriad-hued artificial fruits and
vegetables, made from polyfoam, plastic, PVC, wax, papier-mache and also
terracotta, that grace your showcase and dinning table.

The arrival of genetically modified (GM) vegetation has

meant that plants, fruits and vegetables have been
endowed with increased insect resistance and
abundant nutritional advantages. The health brigade is
lapping these up fervently.

Evolution of agricultural practices has meant that theres greater productivity and
hence prosperity in the farming circles and a variety of healthy food options for
the consumers.
The Past and Present of Agricultural Machinery.

Fire, wheel, language and agricultural machinery are the milestones of human
development. It has been mans quest to ease the labor of life that has been at
the root of several innovations. And this holds true for agricultural machinery as
well.

The Industrial Revolution brought in radical changes in

the way agriculture was practiced. And agricultural
machinery took a new form altogether. There were
machines to do the harvesting and threshing. These
machines were originally powered by the efforts of
horses and other domestic animals, till steam power
came along.

The coming of the steam-propelled, and later on gasoline and diesel, agricultural
machinery, like the tractor and the combined harvester and thresher, brought in
prosperity in agriculture.

The advances in agricultural machinery continue with the Information Age tools.
These days there are machines that come fitted with computer monitoring
systems, GPS locators and self-guiding programsthat enable the device to be
more precise, sparing and accurate with the use of seed, fertilizer and fuel. The
new-age applications of genetic engineering and nanotechnology with their
emphasis on sub-microscopic devices and biological procedures impart the
agricultural apparatus with unusual powers. Farm machinery comes in various
shapes and sizes and is designed to perform the entire range of farm activities.
The tractor is the most popular kind, tillage and irrigation machinery following
closely behind. You also have the seeder that is used to distribute seeds
uniformly in long rows and also helicopters for aerial spraying of pesticides.

The advantages of mechanization are manifold. And nobody knows it better than
man himself, who once practiced agriculture with his bare hands. Apart from
being great laborsaving devices, agricultural machines are also the best
alternative to compensate deficit of farm labors, especially in times of harvest
and in places where manual labor is scarce.

Another prime reason for using the agricultural devices is of course the
enhanced productivity levels that their usage brings about. Farm equipment is
especially helpful when you want to reap the benefits of large-scale production.
There are humanitarian concerns at work as well behind using farm machinery
to save the farm labor from the drudgery of dreadful jobs. Agricultural machinery
has improved by leaps and bounds to provide food by the load for an ever-
growing hungry world population.