What is Ploughing?
Ploughing is a very ancient and traditional farm practice in farming, where a farmer prepares the land for sowing seeds. It is a process of making the soil rich of natural ingredients that are necessary for plant growth. The soil needs to be breakup in tiny particles, making it clods free and more fertile by exposing it to the sun and fresh air.
What is a Plough?
Traditionally ploughing used to be done by handmade tools by farmers working in the fields day and night in the season to prepare their land for sowing seeds. Sometimes to plough the rough and harsh lands farmers used heavy plough pulled by animals like oxen and horses for long hours. The ancient plough used to be made of wooden, iron or steel frame, with a blade attached to it to cut and loosen the soil.
However the methods still remains same, yet the increasing demands of food with increasing population, resulted in the use of advanced and upgraded farm machinery to make the farming operations easier for farmers. And the modern ploughs are among of those new and upgraded farm machineries. The modern are pulled behind the tractors and are large implements with one or more blades fixed in a frame drawn over soil, to turn it, mix it and cut furrows in preparation for the planting of seeds.
How many Types of Ploughs are used in Modern Farming Practices?
Different types of ploughs are used in different countries and their regions depending on the type of soil in that area. With the time and need various types and models have been manufactured by many globally renowned farm equipment manufacturers. Some of the most commonly used and popular types of plough are mentioned below.
- Disc plough
- Subsoil plough
- Mould-board Plough
- Harrow Plough
- Reversible Mould-board Plough
- Rotary Plough or Rotavator
What are the advantages of Ploughing?
These are the main advantages of soil ploughing:
- Loosens and turns the soil bringing the nutrient-rich soil to upper layer.
- Improves air circulation into the soil to let roots of plants respire easily.
- Improves the water retaining capacity of the soil.
- The loose soil allows roots to penetrate deeper resulting into holding the plant firmly.
- Using a plough controls and uproots weeds.
- Helps in the proper mixing of compost in the soil.
