Krishi Jagran Launches tractornews.in & Hosts Webinar on Farm Mechanization

Farm Mechanization is crucial for the modernization & commercialization of the agriculture sector as it enhances productivity and timeliness of agriculture operations, aids in value addition, bring down the cost of cultivation and enables climate change adaptation too.

Keeping this in mind, Krishi Jagran launches a new website https://tractornews.in/ to provide the farmers with a digital window with detailed information of Agri Machinery’s latest news and technology specifications for various brands across the country. Along with this, a ‘Webinar on Farm Mechanization’ is also being organized to discuss the importance of farm mechanization. It is important to mention that this event is sponsored by Apollo Tyres.

This is an effort by MC Dominic, Founder & Editor in Chief of Krishi Jagran & Agriculture World, to build a digital bridge between farmers and industrial companies to help speed up the acceptance and implementation of new technology. He also hopes that with the news provided on this portal, farmers would be able to make more economically sound decisions while purchasing the required farm implements.

Krishi Jagran's M Kanika welcomed all guests and the Inaugural session was graced by the presence of Bharat Bhushan Tyagi, Farmer-Educator-Trainer (Padma Shri Awardee 2019), Dr Harsih Hirani, Director, CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute & Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT, Delhi, Hemant Sikka, President, TMA & President- Farm Equipment, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Antony Cherukara, CEO, VST Tillers Tractors Ltd, Farid Ahmed, Head Marketing (OHT)- APMEA, Apollo Tyres Ltd., Bhavya Sehgal, Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan, MTD Products, Anoop Agarwal, Director & Vice President, Pluga Pumps & Motors Pvt Ltd. , B V Jaware Gowda, President, The Federation of All India Farmers Association, Mitul Panchal, Sr. Vice Chairmen & MD, AMMA Bhagawati Krushi Udyog Pvt Ltd, Prasad B. Zaware, Senior Manager Business Development, Krishi Jagran, Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi, CEO, Madhya Bharat Consortium of Farmer Producers Company Ltd., Mridul Upreti, General Manager- Special Initiatives, Krishi Jagran

Watch Live on Krishi Jagran Fb Page:  https://www.facebook.com/krishijagran

MC Dominic, Founder & Editor in Chief of Krishi Jagran & Agriculture World greeted all the dignitaries in the inaugural session and started his address by highlighting the importance of Agri Media & Agri machinery and its availability to rural farmers. Then, he invited Bharat Bhushan Tyagi to deliver his speech.

Bharat Bhushan Tyagi started his speech by greeting MC Dominic and Krishi Jagran Team for their amazing work in the field of Agri-Journalism. He highlighted the importance of farm mechanization and its availability and affordability to small and marginal farmers too. He said the focus should be on the small farm equipment & tools.. He said the focus should be on the small farm equipment & tools.

Hemant Sikka greeted the Krishi Jagran Team and expressed his pleasure in being part of this website launch. He shared his views about how “Farm Mechanization plays an important role in growth & development of agriculture sector, how this helps in healing the crops, how it helps the farmers in improving the quality of work, how pandemic has increased the farm mechanization due to the shortage of labour. Hemant has highlighted the new website of Krishi Jagran tractor.new.in. He said that this website will provide you with each and every piece of information regarding farm mechanization. Then, he highlighted the objectives of tractornews.in in the following points:

• Trending news on Farm Mechanization

• Detailed specifications of all the tractor and implements brands/models across the country

• Latest launches and updates in farm mechanization

• Comparative study of various tractor brands to ease the purchasing process for farmers

• Geographical Data of Dealers to assist the farmers in searching nearest dealers available to them

• Customer and dealer reviews for better insights into the farmer

Dr Harsih Hirani, highlighting the importance of farm mechanization said, "The land holdings in India are becoming smaller gradually. In the 1960s the average landholding of the farmers of India used to be around 2.2 acres which have reduced to less than 1 acre currently. The main focus should be to produce more and more from these small landholdings and this is where farm mechanization plays a vital role”.

Antony Cherukara greeted Krishi Jagran Team and suggested five A’s to farm mechanization industry to focus and work on:

• Awareness

• Availability

• Assessibility

• Affordability

• Building the ability for farmers

Farid Ahmed Congratulated the Krishi Jagran team for the success it has seen in a short period of time because of its passion to work for the farming community. He said that technology gets developed in labs and universities but until it reaches the farmers – there’s no use of it and here media plays an important role. He added that among all Agri inputs – Farm Mechanization is at the forefront as it helps the farmers in doubling their income. He also said that the only way to improve productivity is through is Farm Mechanization. 

Anoop Agarwal stressed upon the importance of mechanization around the irrigation systems in India. He said, "The water table is depleting day by day. We talk about farm mechanization every day and for most people, it only involves only tractors and big machines. Water is the single most important resource for agriculture and it is very important to use it efficiently. For this, we need smart irrigation techniques which include drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation. With the use of these techniques, we can save the water table from depleting." He also congratulated Krishi Jagran for coming up with such a novel initiative and wished them the best.

Bhavya Sehgal stated, “I strongly feel it is not about using one or two tools to increase productivity but it is about changing mindsets of people and it should become a lifestyle of every individual. Youngsters should be encouraged to be a part of agriculture. People should figure out the cost-benefit analysis as India is on a path of sustainability.”

“Farm Mechanization should not only focus on agriculture-related issues but it should also focus on Global portfolio. We should shift to machines that are electric and battery-driven. Farmers should be aware of the agricultural technologies so that they can quickly switch to battery-driven technologies for sustainable agriculture”, he added.

B V Jaware Gowda stated “The organization should start from lab to land. We have many health centres for humans but we don’t have lab testing laboratories in any village. Farmers cannot every time go to the district level for soil testing”.

He also added, “We need to educate farmers about agriculture technology. What if a farmer declares for half-day leaves for one year what will be the consequences? We are focusing on digital agriculture and farmers should know about the upcoming technologies. We should focus on less labour and more productivity through agriculture technologies. We should not depend on traditional farming and should focus on digital farming technologies.”

Mitul Panchal congratulated MC Dominic on the launch of the new website tractornews.in. He said that Farm mechanization is just not a word but it consists of many attributes. Talking about the quality of products, he stressed upon the changing mentality of preferring cheap products rather than quality products. He said that it is very crucial for customers to mainly focus on the quality of the products. 

He also said, "The farmers must be taught the correct use of agriculture machinery".

Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi stated, "There are 150 FPOs today in Central India. There are 70% small and marginal farmers for whom getting a tractor is really costly. There are customary packages of farm machinery like- harvesters, thrashers, ploughs, cultivators, etc, is available in the market but farmers don’t know what to buy. Lack of knowledge about the usefulness and operation strategy of tractors needs to be addressed. Technology and Farm Mechanization is important for good yields”.

The program was concluded by Shruti Nigam, Content Manager, Krishi Jagran with the vote of thanks.