Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana,India
 Sponsored by
Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi
Research Content
Assessing the Existing Training and Testing Facilities for Farm Machinery in Punjab

     The study evaluated the impact of infrastructure available and identified the gaps and additional requirement of training and testing for agricultural mechanization in Punjab State. The study revealed that the training facilities related to farm machinery were dismal in the state and there was only one Farm Machinery Testing Centre in the state functional at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The trainings on various aspects of farm machinery were being carried for both the farmers as well as extension workers of the state, but training facilities were inadequate and the number of trainees was almost negligible as compared to the level of mechanization. There is lot of scope for improving the use and repair and maintenance of farm machines and equipment which will cut down the cost of production and increase farm incomes. This in turn requires an increase in the number of weekly training courses for extension workers/specialists and farmers. The major sources of information to the farmers regarding the courses being organized were TV/Radio/Newspapers and University publications like "Changi Kheti" and "Progressive Farming". The trainings helped the farmers in increasing their farm income and better utilization of the machinery. The training helped in increasing the knowledge of the extension workers in further dissemination of the knowledge in better utilization of farm resources and in turn increased incomes and improving the present status of agriculture. Farm machinery testing centre had tested a variety of agricultural equipments for seed bed preparation, sowing, intercultural, irrigation, plant protection, harvesting and threshing. Two types of tests i.e. commercial and confidential were carried out and test reports were being utilized by the farmers, manufacturers and quality marking agencies. For the manufacturers and R&D purpose, these reports give clues to improve upon the design and provide excellent guidelines for quality marking agencies in assessing products for quality approval. However, the number of tests did not match with the large number of such machines in the state. The manufacturers, although aware of the contribution of machinery testing to quality improvement, desist from getting these tested because it adds to their cost of production. There is need for testing of farm machinery to be made mandatory so as to improve upon the quality and reduce undue inflow of manufacturers. Most of the manufacturers admitted that they were aware of the testing facilities for farm machinery being provided by the government and were satisfied with the infrastructure available with the testing centre. Majority were in favour of testing to be made mandatory, which will help in boosting the business of qualified and serious manufacturers. The study emphasised on strengthening the training infrastructure and training programmes on farm machinery for the farmers as well as the extension workers so that the benefits of mechanization reach the farming community at faster rate. The testing of those farm machines should be encouraged which either have high cost of production or high volume of demand or production, so that the users can be assured of the quality. The proper location of the FMT & TI in the state suggested is Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.