Overview:
Drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; or removing animal waste. May perform tasks such as crop baling or hay bucking. May operate stationary equipment to perform post-harvest tasks such as husking, shelling, threshing, and ginning.
Career Path:
High school diploma may be beneficial; optional completion of a college certificate program in agricultural equipment operation
Top Colleges:
- Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute
- College of Agricultural Engineering and Post Harvest Technology
- Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth
- Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Kharagpur
- Kerala Agricultural University - KAU
- Swami Vivekanand University
Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.
Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.
Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery.
Adjust, repair, and service farm machinery and notify supervisors when machinery malfunctions.
Attach farm implements such as plows, discs, sprayers, or harvesters to tractors, using bolts and hand tools.
Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment.
Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions.
Spray fertilizer or pesticide solutions to control insects, fungus and weed growth, and diseases, using hand sprayers.