The era of modernization is viewed in the entire sectors especially in the agriculture sector.

Gone are the days when farmers meant a poor man laboring hard to meet his needs. In the modern times, farmers are equipped with agriculture technology that is latest and trouble free. With the entry and increasing influence of the science in the traditional farming, the agriculture industry of the nation is celebrating green revolution each moment. The new technologies have helped in utilizing even the small land into loads of profit making source. Farmers whether small or big are getting more and more aware of the fact that technology is very beneficial to them and the future of the agriculture industry. The technology has resulted into the many innovative equipments that have reduced time and energy invested in to the farming. The newest tractors are capable of plowing big piece of land at the swiftest speed and less consumption of the fuel. Also, for harvesting there are several new equipments that have reduced man power and burden. Also, agriculture technology has revolutionized the irrigating methodology. Now water is easily distributed to the remotest parts with the tunnels especially in dry and hilly areas. The booming agriculture technology serves with the latest ploughs that are light in weight and superior in quality level. Apart from cropping machines and tools, technology has made farmers to use the weather and conditions in intelligent manner. The witty style of farming reduces the losses in the farming and eliminates dependency over weather for farming. Agriculture technology is based on the scientific researches of experts and botanist who have guided the path to the modernization. Also it is all due to new technologies that are awaking farmers to cultivate new crops like bio diesel apart from the traditional horticulture and crops ultimately making farmers rich. The tardiest pesticides including chemical and organic are result of the upgrading agriculture technology. The agriculture technological enhancements have also compelled the retail sector to join the agriculture sector. In the recent developments, like western countries, in developing nations like India, several MNC and retail tycoons have intruded the trade. They all have been emphasizing on the most advance technologies for agricultural that does well to farmers. Govt. of all countries has realized the potential of the agriculture sector and that is why several policies are being implanted that is favorable for agriculture. If the agriculture technology keeps on advancing at same momentum the day is near when, agriculture will retain the old glory and triumph of past in no matter of time.

Agricultural technology refers to technology for the production of machines used on a farm to help with farming. Agricultural machines have been designed for practically every stage of the agricultural process. They include machines for tilling the soil, planting seeds, irrigating the land, cultivating crops, protecting them from pests and weeds, harvesting, threshing grain, livestock feeding, and sorting and packaging the products. . People who are trained to design agricultural machinery, equipment, and structures are known as agricultural engineers. Agricultural technology is among the most revolutionary and impactful areas of modern technology, driven by the fundamental need for food and for feeding an ever-growing population. It has opened an era in which powered machinery does the work formerly performed by people and animals (such as oxen andhorses). These machines have massively increased farm output and dramatically changed the way people are employed and produce food worldwide. A well-known example of agricultural machinery is the tractor. Currently, mechanized agriculture also involves the use of airplanes and helicopters

History
The first people to turn from the hunting and gathering lifestyle to farming probably relied on their bare hands, perhaps aided by sticks and stones. Once tools such as knives, scythes, and plows were developed, they dominated agriculture for thousands of years. During this time, most people worked in agriculture, because each family could barely raise enough food for themselves with the limited technology of the day. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the development of more complicated machines, farming methods took a great leap forward. Instead of harvesting grain by hand with a sharp blade, wheeled machines cut a continuous swath. Instead of threshing the grain by beating it with sticks, threshing machines separated the seeds from the heads and stalks. These machines required a lot of power, which was originally supplied by horses or other domesticated animals. With the invention of steam power came the steam-powered tractor, a multipurpose, mobile energy source that was the ground-crawling cousin of the steam locomotive. Agricultural steam engines took over the heavy pulling work of horses. They were also equipped with a pulley that could power stationary machines via the use of a long belt. The steam-powered behemoths could provide a tremendous amount of power, because of both their size and their low gear ratios. The next generation of tractors was powered by gasoline (and later) diesel engines. These engines also contributed to the development of the self-propelled, combined harvester and thresheror combine, for short. Instead of cutting the grain stalks and transporting them to a stationary threshing machine, these combines could cut, thresh, and separate the grain while moving continuously through the field.

Types of machinery
Combines might have taken the harvesting job away from tractors, but tractors still do the majority of work on a modern farm. They are used to pull implements that till the ground, plant seed, or perform a number of other tasks. Tillage implements prepare the soil for planting by loosening the soil and killing weeds or competing plants. The best-known is the plow, the ancient implement that was upgraded in 1838 by a man named John Deere. Plows are actually used less frequently in the United States today, with offset disks used instead to turn over the soil and chisels used to gain the depth needed to retain moisture. The most common type of seeder, called a planter, spaces seeds out equally in long rows that are usually two to three feet apart. Some crops are planted by drills, which put out much more seed in rows less than a foot apart, blanketing the field with crops. Transplanters fully or partially automate the task of transplanting seedlings to the field. With the widespread use of plastic mulch, plastic mulch layers, transplanters, and seeders lay down long rows of plastic and plant through them automatically. After planting, other implements can be used to remove weeds from between rows, or to spread fertilizer and pesticides. Hay balers can be used to tightly package grass or alfalfa into a storable form for the winter months. Modern irrigation also relies on a great deal of machinery. A variety of engines, pumps and other specialized gear is used to provide water quickly and in high volumes to large areas of land. Similar types of equipment can be used to deliver fertilizers and pesticides. Besides the tractor, a variety of vehicles have been adapted for use in various aspects of farming, including trucks, airplanes, and helicopters, for everything from transporting crops and making equipment mobile to aerial spraying and livestock herd management.

New technology and the future

The basic technology of agricultural machines has changed little through the last century. Though modern harvesters and planters may do a better job than their predecessors, the combine of today (costing about US$250,000) cuts, threshes, and separates grain in essentially the same way earlier versions had done. However, technology is changing the way that humans operate the machines, as computer monitoring systems, GPS locators, and self-steer programs allow the most advanced tractors and implements to be more precise and less wasteful in the use of fuel, seed, or fertilizer. In the foreseeable future, some agricultural machines may be made capable of driving themselves, using GPS maps and electronic sensors. Even more esoteric are the new areas of nanotechnology and genetic engineering, where submicroscopic devices and biological processes, respectively, may be used to perform agricultural tasks in unusual new ways. Agriculture may be one of the oldest professions, but with the development and use of agricultural machinery, there has been a dramatic drop in the number of people who can be described as "farmers." Instead of every person having to work to provide food for themselves, less than two percent of the United States population today works in agriculture, yet that two percent provides considerably more food than the other 98 percent can eat. It is estimated that at the turn of the twentieth century, one farmer in the United States could feed 25 people, whereas today, that ratio is 1:130. (In a modern grain farm, a single farmer can produce cereal to feed over a thousand people.) With continuing advances in agricultural machinery, the role of the farmer will become increasingly specialized.

cultivator
A cultivator is any of several types of farm implement used for secondary tillage. One sense of the name refers to frames with teeth(also called shanks) that pierce the soil as they are dragged through it linearly. Another sense refers to machines that use rotary motionof disks or teeth to accomplish a similar result. The rotary tiller is a principal example. Cultivators stir and pulverize the soil, either before planting (to aerate the soil and prepare a smooth, loose seedbed) or after the crop has begun growing (to kill weedscontrolled disturbance of the topsoil close to the crop plants kills the surrounding weeds by uprooting them, burying their leaves to disrupt their photosynthesis, or a combination of both). Unlike a harrow, which disturbs the entire surface of the soil, cultivators are designed to disturb the soil in careful patterns, sparing the crop plants but disrupting the weeds. Cultivators of the toothed type are often similar in form to chisel plows, but their goals are different. Cultivator teeth work near the surface, usually for weed control, whereas chisel plow shanks work deep beneath the surface, breaking up hardpan. Consequently, cultivating also takes much less power per shank than does chisel plowing. Small toothed cultivators pushed or pulled by a single person are used as garden tools for smallscale gardening, such as for the household's own use or for small market gardens. Similarly sized rotary tillers combine the functions of harrow and cultivator into one multipurpose machine. Cultivators are usually either self-propelled or drawn as an attachment behind either a two-wheel tractor or four-wheel tractor. For two-wheel tractors they are usually rigidly fixed and powered via couplings to the tractors' transmission. For four-wheel tractors they are usually attached by means of a three-point hitch and driven by a power take-off (PTO). Drawbar hookup is also still commonly used worldwide. Draft-animal power is sometimes still used today, being somewhat common in developing nations although rare in more industrialized economies.

Baler to compress a cut and A baler is a piece of farm machinery used

raked crop (such as hay, cotton, straw, or silage) into compact bales that are easy to handle, transport, and store. Several different types of balers are commonly used, each producing a different type of bales rectangular or cylindrical, of various sizes, bound with twine, strapping

Baler

combine harvester
The combine harvester, or simply combine, is a machine that harvests grain crops. The name derives from its combining three separate operations comprising harvestingreaping, threshing, and winnowinginto a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn (maize), soybeans and fl ax (linseed). The waste straw left behind on the field is the remaining dried stems and leaves of the crop with limited nutrients which is either chopped and spread on the field or baled for feed and bedding for livestock.

Hay rake
A hay rake is an agricultural rake used to collect cut hay or straw into windrows for later collection (e.g. by a baler or a loader wagon). It is also designed to fluff up the hay and turn it over so that it may dry. It is also used in the evening to protect the hay of the dew. The next day a tedder is used to spread it again, so that the hay dries more quickly.

Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazinglivestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea Straw is an be fed hay, but they do not pigs. Pigs mayagricultural by-product, the dry it as of cereal plants, after digeststalksefficiently as more the grain and animals. fully herbivorouschaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and basket-making. It is usually gathered and stored in a straw bale, which is a bundle of straw tightly bound with twine or wire. Bales may be square, rectangular, or round, depending on the type of baler used.

air seeder
An air seeder is an agricultural implement also called a planter or seeder and it is used to plant usually a seed crop in a large field. It was first patented in Australia in the 1950's.

For many years seeders had a seed box running the width of the implement which allowed the seed to fall by gravity into the seed row. It was difficult to fill, clean out and transport. The air seeder has centrally located hoppers for seed and fertilizer which distributes them through an air stream to individual seed rows. It is convenient to fill, easy to clean out and move. Any crop that can be grown from seeds - which might vary is size from oilseeds to corn, can be sewn by an air seeder.
The grain and fertilizer hoppers are usually carried on a large cart located behind or in front of the seeder. The air stream is created by a high capacity fan mounted on the cart which blows air through pipes located under the grain and fertilizer tank. Grain and Fertilizer are metered out from the hoppers by a meter wheel that is turning in a ratio set by the operator for the proper seed rate or seed density. The seeds enter the pipe in the airstream and follow the pipes which terminate in the seedbed. Openers pulled through the soil make the opening where the seeds are place. They are made of steel in the shape of points, discs or cultivator shovels. Once placed in the seed bed, the air is blown out the opening in the soil and the seed and fertilizer remain. The seeder can then pack the seeds tight to retain moisture near the seed and harrow the furrows so the field is not rough. Air seeders can seed at speeds up to possibly 10 MPH - planting many thousands of seeds a minute distributing them evenly and accurately. How does the air seeder do this? Using a principle in physics - a gas (air) will distribute itself evenly amongst the divisions available to it. Just like they know where to go, the seed and fertilizer granuals follow the air through divisions of the piping evenly and accurately.

The width of the air seeder can expand for working width and to fold together for transport and have been built to widths of 85 ft - maybe more. Air seeders are expensive to purchase and operate. They require expensive tractors to pull them and they need a steady supply of seed, fertilizer and have wearing parts such as soil openers. The operator must be competent and careful because a mistake in setting the seed placement, seeding rate or in operating the machinery can also be expensive. A mistake or delay in seeding can cost lower grades or a growing season for the crop.

The plough (BrE) or plow (AmE; see spelling differences; pron.: /pla/) is a tool (or machine) used in farming for initial cultivation of soilin preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture. The primary purpose of ploughing is to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds, the remains of previous crops, and both crop and weed seeds, allowing them to break down. It also aerates the soil, allows it to hold moisture better and provides a seed-free medium for planting an alternate crop. In modern use, a ploughed field is typically left to dry out, and is then harrowed before planting. Ploughs were initially human powered, but the process became considerably more efficient once animals were pressed into service. The first animal powered ploughs were undoubtedly pulled by oxen, and later in many areas by horses(generally draught horses) and mules, although various other animals have been used for this purpose. In industrialised countries, the first mechanical means of pulling a plough were steam-powered (ploughing engines or steam tractors), but these were gradually superseded by internalcombustion-powered tractors. In the past two decades plough use has decreased in some areas, often those significantly threatened by soil damage and erosion, in favour of shallower ploughing and other less invasive tillage techniques. Modern competitions take place for ploughing enthusiasts like the National Ploughing Championships in the UK.

Mower
A mower is a machine for cutting grass or other plants that grow on the ground. Usually mowing is distinguished from reaping, which uses similar implements, but is the traditional term for harvesting grain crops, e.g. with reapers and combines. A smaller mower used for lawns and sports grounds (playing fields) is called a lawn mower or grounds mower, which is often selfpowered, or may also be small enough to be pushed by the operator. Grounds mowers have reel or rotary cutters. Larger mowers ormower-conditioners are mainly used to cut grass (or other crops) for hay or silage and often place the cut material into rows, which are referred to as windrows. Swathers (or windrowers) are also used to cut grass (and grain crops). Prior to the invention and adoption of mechanized mowers, (and today in places where use of a mower is impractical or uneconomical), grass and grain crops were cut by hand using scythes or sickles.

Mower types
Sickle mower Rotary mower Reel mower Flail mower

sickle mower
Sickle mowers, also called reciprocating mowers, bar mowers, sickle-bar mowers, or finger-bar mowers, have a long (typically six to seven and a half feet) bar on which are mounted fingers with stationary guardplates. In a channel on the bar there is a reciprocating sickle with very sharp sickle sections (triangular blades). The sickle bar is driven back and forth along the channel. The grass, or other plant matter, is cut between the sharp edges of the sickle sections and the finger-plates (this action can be likened to an electric hair clipper). The bar rides on the ground, supported on a skid at the inner end, and it can be tilted to adjust the height of the cut. A springloaded board at the outer end of the bar guides the cut hay away from the uncut hay. The so-formed channel, between cut and uncut material, allows the mower skid to ride in the channel and cut only uncut grass cleanly on the next swath. These were the first successful horse-drawn mowers on farms and the general principles still guide the design of modern mowers.

Rotary mower