In this blog, Subash Surendran Padmaja discusses the context in which laser land levelling is used in north-western India, the role of private individual service providers in adopting this technology, and why and how extension agents could incorporate them into the extension landscape. 

CONTEXT 

If we travel across the northwestern states of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh in India during April–May at night, we can see tractors guzzling dust across the flat plains. Look closer, and you’ll notice red or green dots from a machine attached to the tractor. During the day, it’s clearer that the machines are levelling the land—an operation done before sowing crops. One might wonder what those machines are and why farmers operate tractors both day and night. These machines are laser land levellers.

Note: The technology consists of a tractor-mounted bucket scraper with a receiver, a control box in the tractor, and an independent transmitter on a tripod. The transmitter emits a laser beam (hence the name “laser land leveller”) to the receiver attached to the bucket scraper, which removes or adds soil using a hydraulic system. The tractor operator can adjust the levels using the control box. For a video animation, see this video.