M. H. Panhwar
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The agriculture
engineering not only applies to agriculture but also to animal husbandry,
fisheries, dairy industry and food preservation. In any of these fields 95 per
cent of the costs involved are engineering in nature and only trained engineers
would be able to handle the job.
On the recommendation of
the Royal Commission on Agriculture in 1928, the Government of India started
executing various schemes in agriculture sector and agricultural engineering
became a new as well as an important subject thereby. It was to be developed
independently according to the needs of each province, with some central
financial assistance from time to time.
Before the establishment of Agriculture Engineering section in Sind the Bombay Government had already started promoting the use of agricultural implements. This was also prelude to opening of Sukkur Barrage and its anticipated requirements. A number of animal drawn implements were introduced, which included various types of moldboard and other ploughs, ridgers, seed drills Cambridge rollers, cultivators etc. A revolutionary implement of that age was Jenkins clod crusher, reported to have been designed by Mr. B.B. Desai, Deputy Director of Agriculture, in 1930 and named after Jenkins the Chief Agricultural Officer of the Bombay Presidency.
Agriculture Engineering
section was established in 1934, with Mr. Cumming as Agriculture Engineer in
Sind. After opening of The Sukkur Barrage it was felt that the vast virgin areas
newly opened, needed to be broken up by deep ploughing. The first crawler
tractor k-3 was imported in 1934.
Subsequently in the
same year another tractor RD-3 was procured. In 1938 one RD-7 was added and in
1940 two more D-7s were purchased. All these were Caterpillar machines. The
World War-II started in 1939 and the British Government in their own Isles
planned large scale mechanization. Similar plans suiting the local conditions
were proposed in
India. It was in
pursuance of this policy that seven Fowler crawlers were ordered in 1940 but
they remained undistributed in Delhi,
until 1946. Two Caterpillar D4 and two International Harvester TD-9 were also
added in 1942. By then the section owned a fleet of crawlers, 108 ploughing,
levelling implements consisting of moldboard ploughs, harrows, disc-tillers,
cultivators, rippers and rollover scrappers to break and level the virgin soils.
In 1946 it was felt that
more than ploughing equipment, bulldozers were needed to level the vast lands
under Sukkur Barrage. Two D6 bulldozers were ordered in 1946, two D-8 dozers in
1948, and four D-6 were added in 1950, making a fleet of 20 crawlers. In 1951
under the scheme of Mechanization of Agriculture in Sind, Seven Oliver tractors
and two D4 were added. All aimed at levelling the land under Sukkur Barrage. In
1954 dozer blades were ordered for all the then existing crawler tractors and
seven new TD-14 dozers were also procured. Thus the total number of working
dozers was already 30 in 1955. At this time the One Unit was formed.
Agriculture Engineering in
Sind thus drifted from manufacture of animal drawn implements and supply of
tractors for ploughing, to reclamation of land by crawler dozers. Although the
Agriculture Engineering section had, manufactured a very large number of animal
drawn implements since 1934, for sale to the farmers, through the agricultural
extension, but in due course of time it became a commercial organization
catering for the farmers needs of and reclamation, rather than any assistance in
actual mechanization of agriculture through its various stages. The Government
by this time had also realized that the ploughing tractors could be kept busy
only, 3 to 4 months a year, whereas, bull-dozers could work round the year and
therefore land levelling operation were an economic bargain to the government,
specially when, farmers paid full charges in advance. The mechanization of
agriculture in its true sense thus got a strong setback. The Engineering
section, at the time of formation of One Unit in 1955 had about 200 employees
who were busy with bulldozer operations, almost 99% of the time and other
aspects of mechanizations were over looked to achieve the reclamation role and
run the organization commercially.
Since 1946 no animal
drawn implements were manufactured in the agricultural workshop, which first
established in Mirpurkhas in 1934 was shifted to Hyderabad in 1942. No trials on
the development of the agricultural implements were undertaken and there was
complete stagnancy in this field.
The Agriculture Department
of the Bombay Presidency had been putting in tube-wells in Maharashtra and
Gujarat but such a facility was not extended to Sind in view of large tracts of
land to come under irrigation on the Sukkur Barrage. In 1946 the Agriculture
Department produced first hand operated drilling rig and in next 7 years it put
in only 3 tube wells, all at the Sukrand Agricultural Research Station. There
was in fact no demand from rural Sind.
As early as 1934, Sind
had developed the fear of shortage of water due to building 6 more barrages in
the Punjab and this had lead to the Sind - Punjab Water Agreement of 1945. Due
to starting of work on the Bakhra Canal System in India in 1948, it was now
certain that there would be water shortages and from 1953 onwards agricultural
engineering set up in Sind, had decided to extend tube wells all over the whole
province. The progress was slow simply because of plentiful of land in the
Sukkur Barrage and release of new lands in Kotri and Guddu Barrages, land owners
preferred extensive cultivation to intensive one. By early 60s the installation
of tube wells in Sind gained some momentum and by 1966, the Agricultural
Engineering section had already 65 hand drilling rigs and 7 power drilling rigs.
In addition Agriculture
Development Corporation of Guddu Barrage also had 3 power drilling rigs and 10
hand drilling rigs. By 1966 tube well operations had come to stay in Sind, where
small sweet water belt was. All subsequent schemes for land development in
Pakistan for Thal, Guddu and Kotri barrages and Soil Conservation scheme at the
Sogn Valley or Baluchistan, NWFP and rain fed areas of the Punjab owe their
origin to this long experience of Sind
with crawlers.
Situation in the Punjab
was altogether different as like UP and Bombay Presidency there was more scope
for development of sweet ground water The Agricultural Engineering section in
the Punjab therefore was tube-well oriented. Bahawalpur had been copying the
Punjab and Baluchistan had been using the example of Sind for soil conservation
with the help of bulldozers. The NWFP agriculture engineering section was
virtually nonexistent except one officer to run some wheel type tractors. The
Punjab had used some wheel type tractors received from Australia under Colombo
Plan for ploughing. Bahawalpur, Baluchistan and Frontier had done the same but
all of them showed poor results as tractors were needed only during the two
ploughing seasons, which were limited to about six weeks each and during the
rest of the nine months of year, tractors were idle.
Sind had followed the
example of Bombay Presidency, which had been copying the trends in England for
their agricultural organizations. The British in England
had expanded Agriculture Engineering activities to a very large degree during
the World War-II. Manpower required for the new key positions consisted of
mechanical engineers trained on the job. American had done the same in mid 30s,
but they had already established many schools in Agricultural Engineering.
Bombay recruited mechanical engineers to work as agricultural engineers. The
most of the Indian provinces did the same. The Punjab did not need mechanical
engineers for drilling and therefore they were indecisive. Baluchistan and
Frontier satisfied themselves by handing over the wheel type tractors and
equipment to graduates of agriculture and designating them as Mechanized
Cultivation Officers. Bahawalpur recruited a one year diploma-holder in civil
engineering for drilling operations. Sind followed the example of Bombay, very
strictly, as they had the maximum amount of field equipment in terms of crawler
machinery and recruited only qualified mechanical engineers.
This determined the future
agriculture engineering in Pakistan. Although West Pakistan Government in the
beginning had insisted that only the mechanical engineers would become
agriculture engineers but their existing staff coming from various provinces had
to be accommodated by law and therefore the number of agricultural engineers
having mechanical engineering background were always in minority. Attempts were
invariably made to make graduates of agriculture as agriculture engineers and
later on graduates of agriculture with honours degree in agriculture engineering
were taken up as agriculture engineers. There was nothing done to correct the
situation i.e., by either taking up mechanical engineers and sending them abroad
for degree in agriculture engineering with more emphasis on agriculture, as well
as engineering as applied to agriculture or to pick up graduates of agriculture
and give them extensive training abroad on mechanical aspects of agriculture
engineering. This gave a serious blow to the future development of agriculture
engineering on correct lines.
There were certain
activities of the agriculture department in which agriculture engineers could
have played a better role from the beginning but this was denied to them due to
lack of foresight, for example plant protection equipment was introduced in Sind
in 1954. Although the Central Government wanted the equipment to be owned and
operated by Agriculture Engineering section, and the extension department was to
work as a client as well as exercise field supervision, the latter insisted to
own and maintain the equipment themselves under their own arrangements. It was
not a question of only maintaining it, but it was primarily the question of
selection of correct type of equipment. The most suitable type of sprayers which
could have succeeded in Pakistan's conditions were being marketed in mid 60s
world over, but the extension officers who, by this time knew and understood
only hand operated sprayers, knapsack hand sprayers and wheel barrow manual
sprayers, could not accept anything more complicated. The trend continued up to
mid 80s. If at all there has been a minor change it is only trolley power
sprayers and knapsack power sprayers which were introduced any way in late 60s.
All manual sprayers are meant for only kitchen gardens and all small power
sprayers for very small holdings. None of them is meant for large scale spraying
of field crops like cotton or orchards. This simple mistake committed 30 years
ago has had far reaching consequences for Pakistan
during these three decades. In my opinion the plant protection programme is an
utter failure, in spite of claims to the contrary. The author has on his small
farm written off at least 10 sprayers in past 20 years, and what he states is
with full confidence. We are yet two decades behind, in introducing proper type
of sprayers, which, could work satisfactorily. Incidentally even in all the
advanced countries, not a single tractor or implement manufacturer is a sprayer
manufacturer. The simple reason is that the tractor and implements technology,
although mechanical in nature, is altogether different from agriculture sprayer
technology. With this background country must give a thought to this unusual
problem.
Since late 50s the other
provinces of Pakistan copying the example of Sind went into land reclamation by
bulldozers and today they are preoccupied only with it, rather than any other
major field. The tube well drilling has turned into second-class duty in these
organizations.
As per decision taken in 1934 agriculture engineer in Sind was to carryout research on tractors, animal drawn implements and other innovations in agriculture engineering. This aspect remained neglected to a large degree, due to more emphasis on land reclamation. Although this appears to be apparently the main reason but it was actually the non-availability of suitable research minded engineers. Such persons cannot be recruited by the Public Service Commission's advertisements and interviews. They have to be searched, persuaded to join and work on their own conditions. At the existing salary structure of the Government, it will be impossible to get such a person. To carryout research enormous facilities are required, which may involve some highly precision type of lab facilities and fleet of staff. Carrying out field trials on imported equipment is no sober research and manufacturing of some imported implements by copying them is also not research, although such attempts have resulted into grant of awards, rewards and titles. With such happenings the agriculture engineering research came to a complete halt in mid 60s. It has never been able to take off again.
The agricultural
engineering includes a large number of subjects besides simple farm power and
farm machinery. Following are a few examples of important fields.
Field irrigation:
The irrigation Department's responsibility ends as soon as water is supplied at
the head of water course from a canal, branch canal or minor canal. The field
irrigation which play important role has never come up in Pakistan and is little
understood. Lining of watercourses is just one simple application of
field irrigation. How about sprinkler irrigation, trickle irrigation,
drip irrigation, precision irrigation, leaving aside ditch and
furrow irrigation? We would save water from something like 40% to 80% by proper
irrigation techniques but this is nobody's baby so far. There is no guidance
available. There are no designers for field layout, if these water saving
techniques are introduced.
Storage of grain: It is another important agriculture engineering technology. This is not being given sufficient thought and presently some silos having concrete structure have been constructed instead of G.I sheet silos. The civil engineers designing such structures have no idea of the exact requirements of the agricultural produce to be stored and maintenance of silos with regard to temperature, circulation of air, humidity control and protection against insects pests, fungus etc.
The agriculture engineering not only applies to agriculture but also to animal husbandry, fisheries, dairy industry and food preservation. In any of these fields and specially in fish farming, dairy industry, animal feed, food processing, meat processing, cold storage for food products etc. 95% of the costs involved are engineering in nature and only trained engineers would be able to handle the job.
A close examination of above types of projects in Sind will show that none of them has been able to take off, in spite of past 3-4 years.[?]
All agro-industrial projects are part of agricultural engineering.
Farm and animal waste management including agro-industrial waste management is within the scope of agricultural engineering.
Fuels from bio-mass i.e., biogas, producers gas, thermal gasification of farm wastes is being handled by National Institute of Agricultural Engineers in U.K., where as in Pakistan it is being handled by Ministry of Petroleum’s Energy Cell, with no participation of agricultural Engineers. Results are obvious. 26 biogas plants were recently installed at Pir Pagaro Saheb's village Pir-jo-goth. None is working.
The humble conclusion is that the issues discussed above need thorough probing examination and favourable consideration. What deserved to be the first rate engineering has been pushed into third rank. It needs salvaging not for its own sake but for the good of the country.
1. Tractors and implements.
2.
Farm
electrification.
3.
Drying and
storing of grains and crops and ventilation.
4.
Plant
protection equipment.
5.
Farm
buildings structures and silos.
6.
Environmental engineering as applied to rural areas.
7.
Farm waste
management engineering.
8.
Livestock
equipment and structures.
9.
Poultry
housing and equipment, handling and transport.
10.
Forage
harvesting, handling, treatment and conservation,
11.
Horticultural engineering.
12.
Aqua
cultural environment management and structures.
13.
Agricultural
engineering instrumentation and control.
14.
Refrigeration and cold storage as applied to agricultural produce preservation.
15.
Food and
feed processing engineering.
16.
Agro-industry.
(This article is dedicated to the memory of Mr. J Comming, the first
Agricultural Engineer in Sind - 1934 - 1939).
This article was first published in March 1985 issue of the monthly 'Pakistan Agriculture'.
