Problems Faced by Agricultural Engineers in India

Agricultural engineering has traditionally been defined as the application of engineering knowledge to solve agricultural problems. Agricultural engineers thus use engineering tools and practices to solve production, handling and processing problems for food and fibre along the production to consumption chain. The origins of agricultural engineering as a discipline can be traced to societal needs in general and farmers’ requirements in particular. The forces and factors that come into play in the development of agricultural engineering included the need for increased agricultural production to feed growing populations, labor shortages and production costs leading to mechanization, climatic vagaries leading to irrigation, and environmental factors leading to farm structures for animal housing, just to mention a few.