Replacing age-old agricultural practice

Rice production has always been a labour-intensive process right from nursery raising, puddling, transplanting, harvesting, threshing to drying. An estimated 80% of the cost of production forms the labour component. Mechanisation offers an option to reduce the cost of production and drudgery of rice farming. Mechanisation in Kashmir valley for rice crop is even more challenging due to the steep variations in the physiographic features of rice fields, ranging from perennially wet and muddy areas to well drained fields in mid altitudes and small terraces in the uplands. Mechanised rice transplanters have not been adopted at the expected scales by the farmers at the national level due to the obvious technological and socio-economic reasons. Ploughing and puddling using tractors, power tiller