Farm mechanization plays an important role in the economic development of Pakistan. It involves using machinery like tractors and tube-wells instead of intensive labor. While Pakistan's agriculture has traditionally relied heavily on labor, mechanization is needed to optimize land use and ensure growth. The introduction of machinery increased from 0.1 horsepower per cultivated acre to a recommended 0.2 horsepower. Despite constraints like lack of funds, the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan arranged foreign credits in the 1960s to import tractors and finance tube-well installations, increasing mechanization. While further support from the World Bank is still needed to boost small farms and enterprises, increased use of efficient technology through farm mechanization can help reduce costs, raise incomes

1. ROLE OF FARM MECHANIZATION IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN
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ROLE OF FARM MECHANIZATION IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN
what is agricultural economics
Agriculturaleconomics originallyappliedthe principles ofeconomics to the production of crops and livestock
— a disciplineknown as agronomics.Agronomics was a branchofeconomics that specifically dealt with land
usage.It focusedon maximizingthe cropyieldwhilemaintaininga good soil ecosystem. Throughout the 20th
century the disciplineexpandedandthe current scope ofthe discipline is muchbroader. Agricultural economics
today includes a variety of applied areas, having considerable overlap with conventional economics.
Farm Mechanization:-
Farm mechanization means the use of machines and technology in the agriculture sector. The use of tractor,
tube-wells and plant protection measures are included in the farm mechanization. So in the farm
mechanization the use of machinery is greater as compared to the labour.
Development in Farm Mechanization
The conventionalproduction practices in the agricultural sector in Pakistan still dominantlyremain to be high
doses of labour andlandwithrelativelysmall input andother items responsiblein increasing unit yields. This
concept is incompatible withthe growthrequirements as it does not ensure the optimum exploitation of land
resources,mechanization therefore emerges as an essential element ofdevelopment in determining the growth
strategy on all size of farms including small ones of subsistence holding. The introduction of cooperative
farming linkedwithmarketing has never beenin the light of cooperative principles resulting minimizing the
possibility of pooling resources for joint investment for further production. In the context of the FAO
indicative world plan suggesting that all developing economics like Pakistan should contrive to achieve a
minimum desirable level of 0.2 H.P. per cultivated acre (0.47) hectare as against nearly 0.1 H.P. Thus scope
for mechanizationoffarms becomes very wideandobvious.Despite this background, the basic constraints in
the adoption of mechanization in Pakistan has been the paucity of foreign exchange and availability of
standardized agricultural machinery. To over-come these shortcomings ADBP during 1965-69 arranged
foreign credit which were primarily for the importation of popular makes of tractors and for financing the
installation of tubewells act of which in fact is the milestone in the history of this part of sub-continent. It
will not be out of place to mention that the first IDA/World Bank credit of $ 27 million was utilized by the
bank much ahead of schedule and fully reimbursed long before the stipulated period i.e. by January 1968
against the closing date of June 30, 1969. In view of the fast increasing demand for the banks loans for
mechanization items the bank obtained second IDA credit of $ 15 million (which includes $ 5 million from
Sweden) forgiving loans for farm machinery and farm equipments. The borrowing from World Bank
continueduptil now enablingto enter intoVIIthproject know as Agricultural Credit Project (APC) in which
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2. ROLE OF FARM MECHANIZATION IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN
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share of IBRD/WorldBank is $113.6 millionandthat of IFADis $ 21 million starting from Fy'90 which is
mainly meant for the weaker sectionofsociety includingsmall farmer and the landless with special reference
to women, to meet their overall production needs including giving boost to small scale enterprise (SSE).
However, in case World Bank has shown reluctantness in releasing of timely funds then not only these
important projects, meant for the development of weaker sections specially creating income generating
activities by "Establishing Small Scale Enterprises"reliedon by-products andresiduals of crops in rural areas,
but will reduce the refinancing capacity for a development bank like ADBP. This will ultimately effect the
commitment for effective utilization andreimbursement ofdues.There is a needfor fulfilling the commitment
by the WorldBankon being conscious that in the absence of judiciary legislation giving protection to banks
and development finance institutions and specialised banks it become difficult to work in a desired manner
specially when political decision over rule the economic one as has been done in the recent past.
Conclusion
Farm mechanization is an important factor in agricultural development.Increasedproductioncan result from
new techniques put into practice on farm. Thus the modernization of our agriculture cannot take place
without the transfer of technology aspect of which to greater extent become possible mainly through world
bank as is evident from foregoing narration of this text. Empirical evidence suggests that an increase in the
quality ofphysical inputs basedon traditional cum intermediatetechnology largely accounts for less than half
of the increase in farm output; the remainder occurs as a result of the use of efficient innovative devices.
However, there is need for implementing such a dispassionate strategy, that suit to our local conditions
without whichno gainful result can be conceived as has happened in the past. It is thus recognised that real
economic development cannot be assuredwithout the modernization of agriculture and that this process can
be broad based only if high emphasis is given towards transfer of efficient technology that help in bringing
reduction in social costs andincreasing yieldandincome in relative terms. This alone can help in alleviating
poverty ensuring unemployment and underemployment the menace that our nation faces today.