From Bullock Cart to Tractor: A Bihar Farmer's Journey
By Field Correspondent · 18 Jan 2026 · 4 min read
For nearly two decades, Ram Bahadur Yadav farmed his family's land near Muzaffarpur using a pair of bullocks, the way his father and grandfather had before him. Saving enough to buy a tractor took years, aided eventually by a state subsidy scheme that covered a portion of the purchase price.
His first tractor, a 50 HP Sonalika model, transformed the pace of his farming almost overnight. Tasks that once took his family the better part of a week, like preparing the field ahead of paddy transplantation, now take a single day, freeing up labour for other work during the busy season.
Ram Bahadur says the biggest adjustment wasn't operating the machine itself but learning to budget for diesel and maintenance costs, which are steadier and more predictable than the seasonal costs of keeping bullocks, but require more careful cash planning around harvest income.
Three years on, he has started doing custom rotavator work for neighbouring farmers in the off-season, turning the tractor into an additional source of income for the household.