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ThesisItem Restricted Development and Evaluation of Strip Till Seeder for Simultaneous Tillage and Sowing of Wheat in Paddy Residue Conditions(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2020) Chaleka, Ashley Tafadzwa; Manpreet SinghA Strip-till seeder (STS) was developed to sow wheat in paddy residue conditions, and a study was conducted to evaluate and compare the performance of the machine with the already existing direct seeding machines i.e. Happy seeder (HS) and Super seeder (SS). Three levels of straw load (4.2, 5.2 & 6.0 t ha-1), three levels of forward speed (2.1, 2.6 & 3.2 km h-1) and two levels of machine rotor speed (127.5 and 137.2 rpm) were selected. Ratio of forward speed and rotor speed was expressed as speed index. Optimal combination of variables was selected on the basis of fuel consumption, effective field capacity, wheel slip, plant germination, weed emergence and grain yield. Effect of straw load was more pronounced on dependent variables than the effect of speed index. The STS performed best at a forward speed of 2.6 km h-1, rotor speed of 127.5 rpm and straw load of 6 t ha-1. Average fuel consumption using STS was between that of HS and SS. Weed density (30 DAS) in STS treatments was 36.7 and 53.7 % lower compared to HS and SS respectively. Plant germination was also comparatively higher in STS treatments. Average grain yield in STS-sown wheat was 12.7 and 18.9 % significantly higher than SS and HS, respectively. The STS performed better than the existing direct seeding machines. Therefore, strip tillage seeding technique proved to be a better option for in-situ straw management and it has the potential to combine benefits of residue mulching and incorporation.ThesisItem Restricted Development and evaluation of tractor operated bund former for mulched field(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2020) Sood, Ashish; Dixit, Anoop KumarIn paddy-wheat crop production system, managing paddy straw fields is a cumbersome process. In these mulched fields bund forming is one of the major problem due to handling of loose as well as standing stubble of paddy straw. To deal with this a tractor operated bund former for mulched fields was developed and evaluated in the actual field. It performs three operations such as straw removing (up to 1.25 m width) followed by soil pulverization and trapezoidal shaped soil bund forming simultaneously in one pass. Field evaluation of the developed tractor operated bund former for mulched fields was conducted in harvested paddy field at University Seed Farm, Ladhowal, PAU, Ludhiana, Punjab. The effect of independent parameters such as three rotor speed ratio (3:1, 4:1 and 5:1), three opening width of bund forming plates (27, 34 and 41 cm) and two straw loads (4.0- 4.5 and 6.0 -6.5 t ha-1) was observed on the dependent parameters namely height of bund, width of bund, pulverization index, fuel consumption and field capacity. The effect of rotor speed ratio, opening width of bund forming plates and straw load was found significant (p<0.05) on height of bund, width of bund, pulverization index, fuel consumption. The best results were obtained at rotor speed ratio 4:1 and opening width of bund forming plates 34 cm under both straw loads. This combination gave optimum height of bund (27.76 cm), width of bund (72 cm), pulverization index (12.76 mm) and fuel consumption (7.05 l h-1) under both the straw loads. The effective field capacity of developed tractor operated bund former was found to be 1.17 ha h-1 at forward travel speed of 1.5 km h-1. The operational cost of the developed bund former machine was found to be Rs 1921.86 ha-1 while cost of forming bund per metre length was Rs 1.45 m-1. There was 77.78 % saving in labour over the conventional bund forming method.ThesisItem Restricted Development and Evaluation of Tractor Operated Pea Pod Picker Mechanism(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2020) Bhad, Rahul; Goyal, RajeshThe pea is most consistently the little spherical seed and belongs to Fabaceae family. India isn't just the biggest consumer of green peas, yet in addition it takes second place in worldwide green pea cultivation, following China. In India the area under green pea cultivation is 540.5 thousand hectares. Presently, green pea crop is cultivated on approximate 35 thousand hectares in Punjab. Out of this 90% area is cultivated under early maturing variety of green pea. Picking of green pea is labor intensive. Therefore, to lower the cost of manual labor, mechanized picking of pea pod is required. A conceptual design of tractor operated pea pod picker mechanism was conceived by keeping in view the agronomic practices and harvesting of pea pods. The developed machine consists of crop guide, picking drum, continuous belt conveyor and aspirator unit. As the machine moves in the field the rotating drum strips out the pea pods from the vines. The machine was evaluated in terms of picking efficiency, percentage of damaged pods, trash content in detached pods, fuel consumption and field capacity at different independent parameters like forward speed 1.5 km/h (F1), 2.0 km/h (F2) and 2.4 km/h (F3), drum peripheral speed 95 rpm (D1), 110 rpm (D2) and 125 rpm (D3) and curved (T1) & straight (T2) tines. Forward speed showed significant effect on picking efficiency and field capacity. The best combination of independent parameters for the pea pod picker mechanism according to maximum picking efficiency (68.27%), minimum damaged pod (8.57%), trash content in detached pods (22.45%) and fuel consumption (1.17 l/h) was found with 95 drum rpm (D1), 1.5 km/h forward speed (F1) and straight tine (T2). To maximize the picking efficiency and further minimize the damaged pea pods and trash content in detached pea pods, modifications and refinements are needed to be done in the developed pea pod picker mechanism.
