Tractors both helpful and harmful
Helpful tractor?
This is the first of the topics  for the new Agricultural Forum. When we consider the power of the tractor we can see why it is that it has become such a valuable re-source for farmers throughout the whole world. It is clear that God has placed within the minds of human beings the ability to create wonderful inventions. God's provision of oil and coal  enabling the combustion engine to operate through the production of petrol and diesel clearly shows God's provision. Cultivating land even with the most basic of tractors has enabled land to be ploughed in a matter of hours rather than days. Where one man using oxen or a horse would guide the plough through the soil now no more need for physical work by the farmer for now the tractor powered by fossil fuels could do the job. Where the need was for harrowing where metal spikes scraped through surface weeds, replacing the manual task of hoeing, then the tractor could do this too. Economic wealth enabled many developed countries to within a few decades of the Second World War to have all cultivation of land done mechanically. With the advancement in plant genetics crop yields greatly increased and of course mechanised harvesting has become the norm.
This all seems extremely good news so far and so it would seem understandable that a number of communities in the developing world would have on their list of things they want ,tractors. In relation to the tremendous horse power of even the most basic tractors it is clear that the pulling of heavy loads is something that the modern tractor can help greatly with in agricultural communities.
 
Harmful tractor?
It is both interesting and concerning to see so many unemployed people in the developed world and to note that although they have access to, in general, very good healthcare and nutrition there is a serious problem also of obesity. In the United Kingdom there are  also over 2.5 million people of working age who are unable to find employment. Many people continue to consume food with the levels of calories in the food that would have been consumed by parents or grandparents who would have been involved in varying degrees of manual work where such calories would  give the necessary energy to complete the tasks. Now though because many do eat foods of high calories still ,obesity and the associated problems with health such as diabetes, heart disease, and strokes has sadly become common problems in many developed countries. In the United Kingdom I sincerely believe that the manual working on the land would not only give much-needed work to some of the millions of unemployed but also be a means by which individuals could keep healthy. This is indeed radical thinking for farmers in their 70s have only really known in their adult working lives, on farms, the use of the tractor. Some may remember possibly themselves or their father going out with a sythe and cutting  an acre of corn by hand but even these  farmers would have eventually become used to the combine harvester mechanically harvesting their wheat or barley and certainly tractors having prepared the ground and pulled the seed drill.
Because of the very harsh economic climate before the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century is true to say that many people who worked on the land ploughing using an oxen or a horse or perhaps hoeing the ground using a hand tool, did not always have the best of diets. They certainly had very poor working conditions and excessively long working hours. With nutrition and health care so dramatically improved now, such conditions would not have to be tolerated by those who would return to the land for employment now. When studying the various countries of Africa it has become clear to me how a large percentage of the working population is still engaged in agriculture ranging from 40% in some countries and up to 70% plus in some others.(In the UK less than 2% of working population )  It is very true to say sadly that a number of farmers are only able to exist in a subsistence way due to drought and disease. Yet also where conditions are more favourable the lack of proper nutrition and health care has meant that the efficient working on the land has not taken place. Often rich African countries have problems with the wealth reaching the needy and without proper nutritional diets there is not sometimes the ability to work the land. But with increased health care and nutritional healthy diets ensuring plenty of employment and job satisfaction will only ,in my opinion, come with manual work on the farm rather than the use of tractors. The high unemployment, and poor health of developed countries workforce who have their manual labour often completely replaced with machines is a clear example of, just because we can do something with a machine it does not mean that we should therefore do so. I find it fascinating that in Tanzania only 10% of the land is cultivated using a tractor and a plough will still the remaining 90% being cultivated by hand using a hoe. I am aware that this does not simply mean that all these farmers are happy and healthy, for poor diet and living conditions complicate matters. Yet with better living conditions for such farmers as these I would argue that the answer to becoming more efficient in agricultural production does not lie with the increasing use of the tractor. This is because as stated earlier mechanisation can take away jobs. An additional consideration should be the environmental cost of a large amounts of fuel, often diesel that has to be used by tractors and harvesting machines which has a impact upon the release of too much carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. In addition to this so often the very large ploughs go down too deep and in so doing bury the microscopic plant life too deep exposing them to conditions where there is no oxygen, (anaerobic conditions) and bringing up the microscopic organisms from deep down which exist in a non-oxygen environment(anaerobic) up into an area where there is plenty oxygen(aerobic) but where they are not designed to live. In doing so many helpful organisms are destroyed, being those which help break down organic matter into substances that are helpful for growing plants as well as those organisms which help to keep pests under control. The problems are ploughing and exposing the soil to the wind and rain leading to soil erosion and compaction is a subject for another inclusion in the agricultural Forum.
 
Yes it is indeed a pretty impressive sight to see one's neighbour with a tractor that can plough the ground so efficiently, yet I hope that the points raised above about how the tractor can be at times more harmful than helpful when taking the whole picture of its impact into consideration is looked at we may reconsider the use of such in farming.
 
It will be good to hear from those of you who use tractors and those of you who do not use tractors and how this has affected your life. Please do not think that I think that using tractors is always wrong in cultivating ground or harvesting because I would not be so arrogant and rude to say so. It is perfectly understandable that the farmer would like to have a tractor which would seemingly make his life easier yet hopefully what I shared may make us all think and look at the bigger picture.
Like I said earlier I believe that our Lord God has made it possible for man to invent things such as tractors and that he would have us use such things wisely taking into consideration how this impacts our lives and the lives of those around us.
God bless. Farmer Andy