What Are The Important Steps In The Process Of Farming?
Food is an essential need for every living being. We humans depend on plants and animals for food. Ancient men began cultivating food in a small area and used specific procedures for their planting and improvement. This art of cultivation of the crop is called Farming.
In Farming, specific parameters are considered, such as the type of crop, soil properties, climate conditions, etc. On the basis of these parameters, farmers decide which crop should be cultivated at what time of the year and place.
However, to yield a high-quality product, factors like suitable soil, climate conditions, and season are insufficient. More significant yield requires a set of procedures that needs to be followed. These measures which are followed to raise crops are called agricultural practices.
In this article, we will look into the exact procedure of Farming and the involved steps.
What is Farming?
Farming is the activity of growing crops and raising livestock. It is the act or process of working the ground, planting seeds, and growing edible plants. Is an important source of livelihood in most parts of the world. It involves challenging work but ultimately contributes to food security and the health of the nation. Before the industrial revolution, Farming was the primary source of income.
What are some Types of Farming?
India is one of the most agriculturally advanced countries across the world, the farming techniques practiced in India can be adapted by farmers worldwide.
Some of the farming types that have significantly contributed to India’s agricultural growth are subsistence farming, organic farming, and industrial Farming.
The most famous techniques are Shifting cultivation, Plantation Agriculture, Intensive Farming, Dry Agriculture, Mixed and Multiple Agriculture, Crop Rotation.
Though Regions throughout India differ in the types of Farming they use, all of them almost follow similar strategies and similar agricultural equipment like farm tractors, combine harvesters, tillers, and more.
What is some equipment that will be needed in the Farming?
You will need a list of essential farm equipment that is very important to execute the procedure. Slowly, as the technology developed, the farm tools too developed.
All-terrain vehicles (ATV) and Utility vehicles (UTV) are used for hauling the harvest or other tools. Farm tractors are used to transport the tools, small farm needs across the large farm. Wagons are used for moving hay; Backhoe is used for deep digging and spreading soil uniformly.
The front-end loader is similar to backhoes but can be used more regularly as they are easy to operate. Cultivators are used for weed control before planting the crops. Cultipacker is used for fixing the seeds firmly and setting up the seed-soil link. Tractors are used for ploughing the fields, Harrows are used to level the ground, and the Mulch layer is used to flatten the ground.
Sprayers are used for pesticides, herbicides spraying. Seed drills like no-tea drills, traditional drills are used to insert seeds in the ground, and Transplanters are used to putting plants in the ground.
Steps in Agriculture
The agricultural cycle is the annual cycle of activities related to the growth and harvest of a crop. These activities include loosening the soil with the help of a farm tractor, seeding, special watering, moving plants when they grow bigger, and harvesting, among others. Without these activities, a crop can’t be grown.
As seen above, Farming needs a process to be followed. Therefore, the order of steps in the procedure is also essential.
Soil Preparation — Sowing — Tilling — Irrigation — manuring — Weeding — Harvesting — Winnowing — Threshing — Storage is the correct order that needs to be followed.
Soil preparation
In agriculture, three essential steps, namely, ploughing, levelling, and manuring, are a part of soil preparation. Ploughing includes loosening and digging of soil. During ploughing, the soil becomes loose, and the nutrients in deep soil come to the top. An advanced tractor is a perfect tool for this step. Using a tractor makes the work easy and quick.
Ploughing helps in the proper aeration of the soil. After ploughing, the soil is distributed evenly and levelled in the process called levelling. The soil is then manured.
Sowing
Sowing is defined as the process of planting the seed in the soil to germinate and grow into a plant. In comparison, planting is putting the plant propagules in soil for growing plants. Propagules can be seedlings, roots, tubers, leaves, or cuttings.
The selection of seeds of good quality crop strains is the primary stage of sowing. After the soil is prepared, these seeds are spread in the field, which is called sowing. Sowing can be done manually, by hand, or by using seed drilling machines. For instance, Some crops like paddy are first grown into seedlings in a small area and then transplanted to the main field.
Manuring
Crops need nutrients to grow and produce high-yield. Therefore, the supply of nutrients at regular intervals is essential. Manuring is the step where nutritional supplements are provided, and these supplements may be natural in the form of manure or chemical compounds in the form of fertilizers. Manure is the decomposed product of plant and animal wastes. Fertilizers, on the other hand, are chemical compounds consisting of plant nutrients and are produced commercially. Apart from providing nutrients to crop, manure provides soil fertility as well. Other methods for soil recovery are vermicompost, crop rotation, planting of leguminous plants, etc.
Irrigation
Irrigation is the water supply to plants. There are several sources of water like wells, ponds, lakes, canals, dams, etc. The irrigation should be managed perfectly, like, over-irrigation may lead to waterlogging and damage the crop, while under irrigation may make them die. Therefore, a consistency needs to be maintained during watering timings. This consistency and interval between successive irrigation times need to be maintained. Therefore, a complete irrigation system needs to be planned to get good returns.
Weeding
Weeds are those unwanted plants that grow among crops and feed on the manure and nutrition meant for the crops. Therefore, weeds need to be removed by using weedicides, by manually pulling them with hands, or should be removed during soil preparation.
Harvesting
The final step is to harvest the crop, which means, once the crop is matured, it can be cut and gathered; this process is called harvesting. Following harvesting, grains are separated from the chaff either by threshing or manually on a small scale, also called winnowing.
Storage
Grains are stored in granaries or bins at godowns for later use or marketing until they reach their final destination. Therefore, methods of crop protection and immediate storage need to be better. To protect grains from pests and rodents- a few sub-steps like cleaning, drying, fumigation, etc., are done before storing.