mechanical harvesters

Mechanised agriculture is the process of using agricultural machinery to mechanise the work of agriculture, greatly increasing farm worker productivity. In modern times, powered machinery has replaced many jobs formerly carried out by manual labour or by working animals such as oxen, horses and mules. The history of agriculture contains many examples of tool use, such as the plough. Mechanization involves the use of an intermediate device between the power source and the work. This intermediate device usually transforms motion, such as rotary to linear, or provides some sort of mechanical advantage, such as speed increase or decrease or leverage. Current mechanised agriculture includes the use of tractors, trucks, combine harvesters, airplanes (crop dusters), helicopters, and other vehicles. Modern farms even sometimes use computers in conjunction with satellite imagery and GPS guidance to increase yields. See: List of agricultural machinery Mechanisation was one of the factors responsible for urbanization and industrial economies. Besides improving production efficiency, mechanisation encourages large scale production and improves the quality of farm produce. On the other hand, it displaces unskilled farm labor, causes environmental pollution, deforestation and erosion.