From the archive record
Evening images from Khurkhul village - Manipur, with villagers returning from the fields after a long day of work - some walk, some are on bicycle and yet others are on their Chinese-made tractors. The small rototiller is typically propelled forward via a (1--5 horsepower or 0.8--3.5 kilowatts) petrol engine rotating the tines, and do not have powered wheels, though they may have small transport/level control wheel(s). To keep the machine from moving forward too fast, an adjustable tine is usually fixed just behind the blades so that through friction with deeper un-tilled soil, it acts as a brake, slowing the machine and allowing it to pulverize the soils. The slower a rototiller moves forward, the more soil tilth can be obtained. The operator can control the amount of friction/braking act