New track combines help farmers harvest paddy in flood-affected areas of Amritsar district

At a time when farmers in flood-affected areas of the district are worried about harvesting their paddy crop, the arrival of new combine harvesters from Uttar Pradesh has come as a big relief. These machines, fitted with track chains instead of regular tyres, are proving to be a game changer in waterlogged and muddy fields.

The recent floods had left large stretches of farmland submerged or softened by silt and excess water, making it impossible for traditional tyre-based combines to operate. Farmers feared heavy losses as the paddy was ready for harvest, but the machines could not enter their fields.

“If these new harvesters had not come, we would have faced huge difficulty,” Gurmeet Singh, a farmer from Ajnala said, while adding that machine operators were charging around Rs 3,500 per hour for harvesting paddy in waterlogged fields.

Unlike conventional harvesters, the new machines use a track system similar to the chains used in tanks. This design distributes the weight evenly and prevents the machines from sinking in wet soil. The technology was developed keeping in view rice-growing regions where standing water often delays harvesting of the crop.

Farmers say that these track combine harvesters are not only helping them harvest their crop in time, but also saving grain from damage. “The machine moves smoothly in slush where even tractors get stuck,” explained another farmer Gurnam Singh.

Agriculture Department officials confirmed that such machines had come to the district for the first time and were regularly working in flood-affected villages.