What changes have taken place in production techniques in agriculture in the last 30 years? Explain.

To meet the requirements of settling on new land and on new habitats, implements and equipment were modified by the people. In Asia and Africa, the government focused on scientific forestry and decided to keep people away from the forests. As their important goal was to collect timber and the conservation of forests, so the changes that have taken place in production techniques in agriculture in the last 30 year which was as follows:

• Later, the government realised that it was important that villagers protect these forests. For example - across India, from Mizoram to Kerala, dense forests have survived only because villages protected them sacred groves known as sarnas, devarakudu, kan, rai, etc.

• Villagers protect the forests and patrol rather than handing over responsibility to the forest guard.

In terms of the new technology that came up were -

• New ploughs of about 12 feet long were devised to turn over the soil and to break the sod. These new ploughs had front resting on small wheels, and they were dragged by the six yokes of oxen or horses.

• Tractors and disk ploughs were used by the farmers for clearing large farmlands for wheat cultivation.

• Earlier, for harvesting, a cradle or sickle was used. We had seen that hundreds of men and women in the field harvesting after the crops ripen. Cyrus McCormick invented the first mechanical reaper in 1831. This technology helped to cut in one day as much as five men could cut with cradles and 16 men with sickles. To cut grains, farmers started using combined harvesters.