Two-wheel tractor or walking tractor are generic terms understood in the USA and in parts of Europe to represent a single-axle tractor, which is a tractor with one axle, self-powered and self-propelled, which can pull and power various farm implements such as a trailer, cultivator or harrow, a plough, or various seeders and harvesters. The operator usually walks behind it or rides the implement being towed. Similar terms are mistakenly applied to the household rotary tiller or power tiller that may be wheeled and/or self-propelled but often is not. A further distinction is seen in the two-wheeled tractor’s ability to operate disparate types of agricultural equipment, while rotary tillers are smaller and specialize in soil tillage. This article concerns two-wheeled tractors as distinguished from such tillers.
Confusion over definition
Research has identified a number of terms used to identify two-wheel tractors, including “iron-ox; walking tractor; Kubota; mechanical ox; ox-machine; power tiller; rotary hoe, rotary plough, rotary tiller; Rotavator, and tok-tok”.
“Power tiller” can be understood as a garden tiller/rototiller of the small 3–7 hp petrol/gasoline/electric powered, hobby gardener variety; they are often sold as a rotary tiller, though the technical agricultural use of that term refers solely to an attachment to a larger tractor. Alternatively, the terms “power tiller” or “rotary tiller” are always understood in Asia and elsewhere to be rubber- or iron-wheeled, self-propelled machines of 5–18 hp and usually powered by heavy-duty single-cylinder diesel engines (many Asian countries historically have had a high luxury tax on petrol/gasoline). Adding to the nomenclature confusion, agricultural engineers like to classify them as single-axle tractors. For clarity, the rest of this article refers to the self-propelled, single-axle, multi-attachment tractive machines as two-wheel tractors.
For production agriculture, past and present, two-wheel tractors are offered with a wide range of attachments such as rotovators, moldboards, disc-plow and spike-tooth harrows, seeders, transplanters, and planters. Even zero till/no-till planters and seeders have become available. In plant protection two-wheel tractor attachments consist of various inter-cultivators and sprayers. For harvesting mowers, reaper/grain harvesters, reaper-binders, and even combine harvesters are available for them. For transport, trailers with capacities from 0.5 to 2 plus ton cargoes are available. All the chores done by larger 4-wheel tractors. This confusion or misunderstanding runs deep even at research and institutional levels. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s own a statistical database, FAO Stat gauges levels of mechanization by numbers of 4-wheel tractors and ignores completely the fact that 2-wheel tractors perform exactly the same work that 4-wheeler tractors do. By using FAO’s statistics, international donors and agricultural research and development centers assume that since Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have very few 4-wheel tractors, that they are completely unmechanized, as compared to India, who besides having 100,000 two-wheel tractors also has a large population of 4-wheel tractors. Yet, when two-wheel tractors are included, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are the most highly mechanized countries in south Asia, in terms of area under mechanized tillage operations.
Safety of two-wheel tractors
A number of reports have highlighted safety issues associated with the operation of two-wheel tractors. The most common accidents involve crossing the bunds and road transport. The operation of two-wheel tractors for transport at night is a recognised hazard in many countries, particularly as single headlights can be mistaken for a motorcycle. Research undertaken in Cambodia and Laos concluded that two-wheel tractors are involved in around five per cent of fatal accidents. Occupational health and safety reports have recommended regular breaks for the machine operator due to vibrations. However, safety researchers have concluded that “the risk to public safety must be weighed against the economic and social benefits.
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