ENGINEERING FOR FARMERS

Earlier I pondered on why the farmers are getting disappointed day by day at many places in our country. What could be the solutions for them? Let me now talk not about policies that ought to be brought into and legislations to be implemented actively for the farmers.Here I am going to propose some engineering solutions which could be helpful to them.
Transportation: Lack of good quality road network in our country is causing stagnation of food products grown in remote lands to be mobilized to region where they are consumable more.To tackle this, slow moving heavy carriage vehicles should be provided a separate lane as designing highways. This would increase the efficiency of fast moving vehicles also. This lane may not be smooth but must be rigid.
Petroleum independence:Soring prices of petroleum products are curse to farmers as they use diesel in ploughing as well as in irrigation.Pathetic are the places where electricity is yet in the dark of hope.
Canal irrigation system would be spread tremendously if interlinking of rivers across north to south is brought in. With this huge project, 35 million hectare of land would be made cultivable(total 173 million hectare). This is also expected to generate power of 35000 MW by hydroelectric power generation method which could replace power generation system generating power from non-renewable sources leading huge cut in environmental impact.But unfortunately the cost of this project is enormous. National Water Development Agency has projected its cost in 2002 around $112 billion which constitutes 20% of our current GDP.This step might be taken if there is determination to raise the majority population.
Another solution to reduce the input cost in harvesting may be to reduce the evaporation loss of water from root zone of soil.In sandy soil water consumption is too high to grow all kinds of crops.Water evaporates easily as well as drains down into below strata.