The Indian agriculture sector is an essential part of the country's economy and employs a significant portion of its population. Farmers with landholdings of less than one hectare and between one and two hectares are classified by the Indian government as marginal and small-scale. Due to the fragmentation of landholdings and land division among children with each new generation, the number of small farms and farmers is steadily increasing. This land size reduction can impact the farmers' yield and ability to afford farm inputs, making small farm cultivation a challenging process. Despite a thrust towards farm mechanisation, most small farmers still rely primarily on traditional tools and methods. Though farm implements reduce drudgery and enhance efficiency, small farmers struggle to balance investment in expensive farm equipment and crop yield. A gap exists between simple, cheap hand tools and costly, large-scale powered tools like tractors. The research has led to the generation of a design framework that allows for designing context-specific, human-centred interventions in farm equipment for small and marginal Indian farmers. The design framework has been verified during the steps of the project-based iterative design approach. This has led to the design of a low-cost, portable, human-powered rice thresher that considers the locally available materials as well as skill sets of fabrication and repair while allowing ease of learning and operating. The framework developed to design these types of interventions would help other researchers, designers, and engineers to work more effectively in the farming domain. In the long run, the research aims to improve small farmers' livelihoods while improving food security.