All of the foregoing technological advances have been critically dependent on the availability of an abundant and economic supply of fossil fuels including diesel fuel for on-farm tractors and self-propelled machines; and natural gas, heavy fuel oil and coal for off-farm electricity generation.
Japan, in particular, has developed many machines for small farms and plots. For certain operations, mechanization spreads to small farms when machinery can be rented rather than bought. For a rental market to be established, the optimal farm size for owning a machine must be bigger than that of numerous small farms. In addition, it is easier to establish rental markets for operations that do not need to be done on all farms at the same time: threshing and milling are examples.

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All of the foregoing technological advances have been critically dependent on the availability of an abundant and economic supply of fossil fuels including diesel fuel for on-farm tractors and self-propelled machines; and natural gas, heavy fuel oil and coal for off-farm electricity generation.
Japan, in particular, has developed many machines for small farms and plots. For certain operations, mechanization spreads to small farms when machinery can be rented rather than bought. For a rental market to be established, the optimal farm size for owning a machine must be bigger than that of numerous small farms. In addition, it is easier to establish rental markets for operations that do not need to be done on all farms at the same time: threshing and milling are examples.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3

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