Farm Machinery

The rule of thumb is one horsepower per acre of annual cropped area. Buying above that is the most common capital mistake in Indian farming — and the reason so many tractors sit idle 300 days a year.

Sizing rule: ~1 HP per acre cropped annually

Prepares a seedbed in one pass where a cultivator needs three, saving diesel and about a week of turnaround between crops. The cost is soil structure: continuous rotavation builds a hardpan at 15–20 cm.

Tractor needed: 35 HP+ for a 5-foot unit

A combine cuts harvest cost by roughly half against manual labour and compresses a two-week job into two days — which in a rabi season racing the pre-monsoon rain is often the whole point.

Types: Self-propelled, tractor-mounted, track (for paddy)

Places seed and basal fertiliser at a uniform depth in one pass. It cuts seed rate by 15–20% versus broadcasting and, in the case of the Happy Seeder, lets wheat be drilled straight into standing paddy stubble without burning it.

Types: Seed-cum-fertiliser, zero-till, Happy Seeder

Nozzle choice matters more than the pump. Most farmers over-apply because a worn nozzle delivers 30% more volume than a fresh one — replace nozzles every season and calibrate before the first spray of the crop.

Types: Knapsack, battery, HTP, boom, drone

The secondary-tillage workhorse: after the plough it breaks clods, kills weeds between passes and stirs a seedbed for a fraction of a rotavator’s cost. The decision is tyne type, not power.

Where it fits: Secondary tillage, after the plough

Flattens a field to within ±2 cm by laser, and that flatness cuts irrigation water 20–30% while lifting yield. At ~₹3 lakh for occasional use, it is a machine to hire, not own.

What it does: Levels a field to ±2 cm

Cuts through hard clods and loose residue that tynes ride over — its angled, spinning discs slice and turn on their own weight. The decision is tandem versus offset, and how heavy your soil is.

Where it fits: Clod-breaking & residue incorporation

Drills wheat straight into loose paddy straw — cutting and lifting the residue, sowing, and dropping the straw back as a surface mulch. The machine that makes not burning the stubble the easy choice.

What it does: Drills wheat into paddy stubble, no burning

Sows seed and fertiliser straight into an unploughed field — no seedbed, no tillage pass. It saves a full round of cultivation, gets wheat in a week earlier, and holds the moisture the plough would dry out.

What it does: Sows into untilled soil, no seedbed prep

A walking two-wheel tractor: one small engine that tills, puddles paddy, hauls a trailer and drives a pump on plots a four-wheel tractor cannot reach or pay off. The decision is engine size and attachments.

What it is: Walking two-wheel tractor