Access over ownership: why farm mechanisation in India needs a platform

For most small farmers in India, the problem at sowing or harvest is not knowing which machine to use. It is getting one in time. India's mechanisation challenge is less about technology than about access.

India's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture estimated that about 47% of agricultural operations in the country are mechanised, compared with roughly 60% in China and 75% in Brazil ^{1[1]PRS Legislative Research. Summary of the Standing Committee on Agriculture report "Farm Mechanisation for Small and Marginal Farmers" (2022–23). prsindia.org}. The gap matters because timeliness is everything in farming: a few days' delay in land preparation, sowing or harvest can cut yields and push crops into worse market windows.

The obvious fix — every farmer buys a tractor — does not survive contact with Indian land records. About 86% of operational holdings are small or marginal, under two hectares, and the average holding is 1.08 hectares ^{2[2]Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. Agriculture Census 2015–16 (Phase I): number and area of operational holdings, 2018.}. A machine that costs several lakh rupees and works only a few weeks a year on a two-acre plot is a debt, not an asset.

Policymakers have recognised this for years. Under the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM), launched in 2014–15, the government supports Custom Hiring Centres and Farm Machinery Banks so that farmers can rent equipment instead of buying it. Government figures put the number of Custom Hiring Centres set up under the scheme at more than 27,000 ^{3[3]Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) — scheme details and progress statement, July 2026. myscheme.gov.in}.

The model is right. The difficulty is coordination:

• Discovery. A farmer often does not know which owner nearby has a cultivator, a rotavator or a combine harvester free next Tuesday.
• Timing. Demand is intensely seasonal. Everyone needs the same machine in the same fortnight.
• Trust. Farmers need confidence in the operator and the price; owners need confidence that they will be paid and the job is real.
• Labour. Machines are only half the story. Sugarcane harvesting, spraying and orchard pruning still depend on skilled crews, and finding one in peak season is a recurring headache.

A digital platform does not replace Custom Hiring Centres or private machine owners; it makes them easier to find and fill. This is the bet behind Farmo, Dark Basalt's agritech venture. Farmo lets farmers book machinery — from tillage and cultivator ploughing to combine harvesting, pond digging and laser land levelling — and hire trained labour for sugarcane harvesting, crop spraying and pruning ^{4[4]Farmo. "Agricultural Mechanization & Farm Labor On Demand," farmo.in, accessed October 2026. farmo.in}.

Three design choices matter most:

1. Hyper-local clusters. Farmo organises supply around working hubs — currently including Karmala, Solapur and Karjat in Maharashtra — so that a booking is matched with machines and crews that can actually reach the field ^{4[4]Farmo. "Agricultural Mechanization & Farm Labor On Demand," farmo.in, accessed October 2026. farmo.in}.
2. Verified supply. Machine owners and workers join as partners through the Farmo Force programme, so farmers book people the network knows rather than strangers ^{4[4]Farmo. "Agricultural Mechanization & Farm Labor On Demand," farmo.in, accessed October 2026. farmo.in}.
3. One booking for machine and crew. Many field jobs need both. Treating machinery and labour as one marketplace reduces the number of phone calls a farmer has to make in peak season.

Farmo reports more than 500 labourers onboarded, over 250 machines listed and more than 100 farmers served ^{4[4]Farmo. "Agricultural Mechanization & Farm Labor On Demand," farmo.in, accessed October 2026. farmo.in}. These are early numbers, but they show that both sides of the market — owners with idle capacity and farmers with time-critical jobs — will use a simple app when it saves them time.

The next questions are harder. How should prices respond when demand spikes? Can booking data help owners decide which implements to buy next? And can a booking history become the basis for fair, seasonal credit for farmers — a question our fintech research team is now exploring?

We will share what we learn as Farmo grows. If you run a Custom Hiring Centre, a farmer producer organisation or a machinery business and want to partner, get in touch.