FARM TOOLS IN AGRICULTURAL CROP PRODUCTION

Farm tools, implements, and equipment play very important role in agricultural crop production. Their availability makes the work much easier and faster. However, even if one may have the most sophisticated tools and implements, but does not know how to use them, they are useless. In order to do crop production operations successfully, one must have a good working knowledge of the tools, implements and equipment before using them.

Hand Tools

Hand tools are usually light and are used without the help of animals or machines. They are being used in performing farm activities which involve small areas like school garden and home garden.

 Examples:

Bolo is used for cutting tall grasses and weeds
and chopping branches of trees.

Crowbar is used for digging big holes and for
digging out big stones and stumps.

Pick-mattock is used for digging canals,
breaking hard topsoil and for digging up stones
and tree stumps

Grab-hoe is used for breaking hard topsoil and
pulverizing soil.

Spade is used for removing trash or soil,
digging canals or ditches and mixing soil
media.
Shovel is used in removing trash, digging
loose soil, moving soil from one place to
another and for mixing soil media.
Rake is used for cleaning the ground and
leveling the topsoil.

Spading fork is used for loosening the soil,
digging out root crops and turning over the
materials in a compost heap.

Light hoe is used for loosening and leveling
soil and digging out furrows for planting
Hand trowel is used for loosening the soil
around the growing plants and putting small
amount of manure fertilizer in the soil.

Hand cultivator is used for cultivating the
garden plot by loosening the soil and removing
weeds around the plant.

Hand fork is used for inter row cultivation.
Pruning shears is for cutting branches of
planting materials and unnecessary branches
of plants.