Agricultural Machine and Equipment involve in Planting Process.

Farming is one of the earliest human achievement. We are able to multiple our food and these activities led to the very first human settlement and our population begin to grow. The first farming practices is so simple and only involve sowing of seed and wait for the plant to grow and harvest.

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We continue to research on how to improve our farming technique to increase our yield and this advancement comes in different varieties or form. We improve our seed to be more drought tolerance and diseases resistance and by introducing machine and equipment which makes farming easier and we are able to cultivate more land.

One of the first implement that makes a huge change in farming in the early century is plough. A detachable and replacement share believed to be first use in the Ancient Near East around 1000 BC. Years later this revolutionary implement spread to other part of the world and it became a must have implement in our large farm. Animal power use in driving this implement are Oxen, Donkey, Bull and Camel are believed to be the first draught animals.

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Now that we have seen brief history of farming techniques and early implement use in farming practice, let talk about the modern planting process and the implement use to achieve this. I will be explaining the farming practice in a typical farming season.

-Land clearing: This is the first thing to do during a farming season. It involve removing debris form the farm land. These mostly include dead plant remenance form previous season. In team of new land that is to be cultivated for the first time, trees and rocks are the main obstacle to be cleared.

Equipment and machine use in Land clearing.

• Bulldozers
• Excavators
• Chainsaws
• Chisel plough
• Levelers and many more.

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-Ploughing: This is the second practice and it done to loosening the soil by lifting and turning the soil over. This is known as primary tillage and it has many advantages which makes it very important in farming. When ploughing, weed and fertilizer can be mixed with the soil easily.

Equipment and machine use in Ploughing.

The main equipment use in ploughing is plough and it either animal drawn or machine driven. Plough with wooden or metal frame are attached and drawn by tractors. A plough is usually set of blades arrange in a specific way to cut and loose the soil.

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-Harrowing: This is similar to ploughing but in harrowing we further brake down the soil to make it more loose which makes the soil ideal for planting. All weed and insect nest/hive missed by ploughing will be destroyed during harrowing so we can call harrowing a secondary ploughing, and this is done to get the best possible result.

Equipment and machine use in Harrowing.

The equipment use in harrowing is called harrow and as said the similarity between the ploughing the equipment is similar the main different is that harrow is the blade are usually in set of gangs which can be arrange in different ways to achievement different purpose.

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-Ridges: This is the process of making ridges where seeds will be planted on. This is optional because not all crop requires ridges to grow well. Some crops such as rice do not require ridges so after harrow the next step is planting but legumes crops such as soy beans and cowpea need ridges to grow effectively.

Equipment and machine use in Ridges.

Ridger is the main implement use in making ridges and it usually in different set drawn by tractor over the already tilled soil to create a large curve like shaped soil. This will form the bed for the seeds to be planted and ridger are also drawn by tractors.

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-Sowing/planting: This is the process where seeds are sow into the soil to germinate and this signals the start of the farming season all mentioned above are done to provide a good environment for the seed to germinate properly.

Equipments and machine use in Sowing/planting.

Planters are the main equipment used in planting and they come in different verities depending on the type of crop.

• For crops that does not require ridges such as rice are usually sow with broadcasting method where the seeds are scatted on the field in irregular manner and the equipment use is called a seed broadcaster

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• For crop planted on ridges such as maize, we have different types of planter and there are precision planter and seed drill depending on the pattern you want to plant.

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Conclusion

I have try as much as possible to explain the various types of planting processing and the equipment and machine involved and I hope we can all see how we have been able to evolve form just planting on any piece of land as seen centuries ago to different processes we undergo to provide the best condition for our seed.

Thank you all for reading I really appreciate you time and I hope you enjoyed this lesson see you next time bye.

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