Recent trends in farm machineries for horticulture

Abstract

Horticultural mechanization has emerged as a crucial driver of productivity, quality enhancement, and sustainability. Unlike broadacre agriculture, horticultural crops require highly specialized machinery due to smaller plot sizes, intensive cultural operations, and delicate produce. Over the last decade, but especially in the period 2020-2025, significant technological progress has been recorded in precision farming, automation, robotics, electrification, protected cultivation machinery, and post-harvest processing. Digital tools such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud-based decision support systems are accelerating adoption. This review synthesizes recent trends, examines adoption constraints, identifies research gaps, and proposes future directions to foster wider use of modern farm machineries in horticulture.