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ThesisItem Open Access Development of Relationships between Spectral Reflectance Data and Selected Biotic-abiotic Stresses in Cotton Crop(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2018) Soni, Rishabh; Singh, S.K.The present study was conducted to develop the relationships between spectral reflectance data and biotic-abiotic stresses in cotton crop. Four levels of urea application with rate of 225, 275, 325 and 375 kg ha-1 were applied in experimental plots. Row to row spacing for cotton crop were kept as 67.5 and 80 cm for the experiment. All the plots for the experimental field were georeferenced using GPS device. Data was collected at various growth stages of cotton crop using drone mounted cameras and Green Seeker for computation of variations in NDVI at different nitrogen levels. NDVI obtained from different sensors were increasing from vegetative stage (Mean NDVI = 0.454) till bud formation stage (mean NDVI = 0.7089) and decreased at boll opening stage (mean NDVI = 0.5232) till maturity stage (mean NDVI = 0.1432) of cotton crop. It was evident from the regression analysis that NDVI values obtained from NIR+R camera and Green Seeker had a good relationship having R2 = 0.74. Study also revealed that when mean insect population varied from 7.18 to 23.027 mean NDVI values obtained from NIR+ R camera after image processing varied in the range of 0.477 to 0.5441 and mean NDVI obtained from Green Seeker varied from 0.801 to 0.831. It was also found from the spatial maps and drone imagery that part of crop having more vigour, NDVI values in the vegetative stage was most affected by whitefly attack.ThesisItem Restricted Refinement and evaluation of sugarcane trench planter to suit local conditions(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2018) Mohit Kumar; Dogra, BaldevTrench planting of sugarcane is being popularized by PAU as it gives better net returns, requires less water and management to avoid cane lodging is easy. At present, trench planting is practiced by making trenches using tractor operated trencher and remaining operations are done manually involving 200-250 man-h/ha. To reduce labour requirements, no such machine is being utilized by farmers in Punjab for planting sugarcane in trenches. There is shortage of labour Therefore, a sugarcane trench planter, which was commercially available in Uttar Pradesh, was modified according to suit local condition of Punjab to bridge this mechanization gap and thereby increasing the level of mechanization in Punjab. The preliminary evaluation of sugarcane trench planter was carried out at three different cutting rollers peripheral speeds (0.93 m/s, 0.81 m/s and 0.69m/s) and three forward speeds (2.26 km/h, 2.6 km/h and 3.0 km/h) on three varieties of cane (Co118, CoPb93 and CoJ-85). Thereafter, the field evaluation of modified sugarcane trench planter was carried out by selecting one cutting rollers peripheral speed 0.69 m/s and two forward speeds (2.26 km/h and 3 km/h) on same three varieties of cane (Co118, CoPb93 and CoJ-85). The selected dependent variables were cane length, cane diameter, set length, bud damage, set damage, number of set cut, overlap/ gap and germination count. The observed data was statistically analyzed by using statistical software ´SPSS`. The average cane length observed during field evaluation in Co118, CoPb93 and CoJ-85 was 212.33, 193.80 and 173.68 cm respectively. The average cane diameter observed during field evaluation in Co118, CoPb93 and CoJ-85 was 2.65, 2.35 and 2.73 cm respectively. Set length increased with the decrease in diameter of cane and cutting roller peripheral speed. Bud damage increased with the increase in cutting roller peripheral speed. Bud damage in variety Co118 was higher due to relatively more toughness of cane. Number of set cut increased with the increase in cane length and decrease in set length. Average overlapping decreased with the increase in forward speed. Practically no set damage was observed. Germination percentage on left side of trench observed in Co118, CoPb93 and CoJ-85 was 50.71%, 43.00% and 48.50% respectively, whereas, on right side of trench observed was 48.11%, 38.68% and 43.15% respectively. Germination of cane observed by machine planting was more than the conventional planting. There was 20 to 30% reduction in cost of planting and 55 to 60% reduction in labour cost as compared to conventional method.ThesisItem Open Access Development and evaluation of an engine operated walk type drop down sprayer for cotton crop(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2018) Dhaliwal, Ranjot Singh; Narang, M.K.An engine operated walk type drop down sprayer was developed for spraying on cotton crop. The developed sprayer had eight nozzles. Boom was developed in T-shape. Six nozzles were attached on vertical part of the boom with three nozzles spraying in left horizontal direction and other three spraying in right horizontal direction. The boom was mounted on a wheel hand vehicle. Nozzle selected for the sprayer was tested under laboratory conditions under different fluid flow pressures (7.5, 10 and 12.5 kg/cm2). The spray width, spray angle and discharge rate of the nozzle were noted. The discharge rate increased from 611.47 ml/min to 829.53 ml/min; Spray angle increased from 75.7 to 83.0 degrees and swath width varied from 85.1 to 99.8 cm with increase in pressure from 7.5 to 12.5 kg/cm2. The sprayer was evaluated in the field at 10 kg/cm2 for three different forward speeds (1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h) and three different plant height of cotton crop (1.0, 1.3 and 1.75 m) at Research Farm of the Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, PAU, Ludhiana The spot size, area covered, droplet density and field capacity were recorded and analyzed. The droplet density varied from 185.67 to 386 drops/cm2 for 1.5 km/h and at forward speed of 2.5 km/h, the droplet density varied from 53.33 to 286 drops/cm2. The maximum field capacity was found to be 0.16 ha/h at forward speed of 2.5 km/h and at plant height of 1.0 m. The bioefficacy of the developed sprayer was also evaluated at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Goneana and at farmer’s fields in village Goneana, district Shri Muktsar Sahib at three levels of forward speed of 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h and at three heights of crop i.e. 1.0, 1.3 and 1.75 m and compared with the knapsack sprayer. The population of whitefly was recorded before spray and after three, seven and ten days of spray. The maximum percentage reduction over control was found at forward speed of 2.0 km/h and at plant height of 1.0 and 1.3 m.ThesisItem Open Access Evaluation of respirable dust filtering materials for agricultural field operations(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2017) Narjeet Singh; Khurana, RohinishIndian economy is heavily dependent on agriculture. Most of the agriculture operations had been mechanized. Mechanization leads to dust generation especially during tillage, harvesting and threshing operations. Prolonged exposure to dust is harmful for the agricultural farm workers. A study was conducted to identify agricultural field operations requiring intervention of personal protection from respirable dust as health hazard. Protective measures available were evaluated during the study. Observations were made to measure the density of three different particle sizes i.e. 1µ, 2.5µ and 10µ of the dust generated during tillage, harvesting and threshing operations using dust monitor. The selected implements were cultivator, disc harrow, rotavator, planker, laser leveler, thresher and combine harvester. Mean values of dust density across all operations were found to be within permissible limit of 5.0 mg/m3 as defined by OSHA. Four most dust generating operations were identified as disc harrow, rotavator, combine and thresher with mean dust density values 2.501, 2.600, 3.404 and 3.167 mg/m3. Fifteen different filtering elements were evaluated for their dust filtering performance during the selected operations. Mean values of dust density for all filter elements during the selected operations varied between 0.175 and 0.505 mg/m3. The overall mean dust filtering efficiency value for all the filter elements varied between 76.4 to 96.1%. Cloth type filter elements with three layers were found to be most efficient out of all the filter elements. Cloth 1(68% polyester and 32% cotton fabric) type having three layers was most efficient with 96.1 % filtering efficiency.ThesisItem Open Access Evaluation of soil compaction as affected by different tillage practices(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2017) Abhishek Kumar; Saimbhi, Varinder SinghA study for evaluating the soil compaction caused by different tillage practices was undertaken. The independent parameters for the study were two soil types (sandy loam, S1 and silty loam, S2), six different tillage practices (conventional tillage practice as P1, P2, rotavator practices as P3, P4 and spading machine as P5, P6), two forward velocity ranges (V1 and V2) and two operation depth ranges (D1 and D2). Replicated (three) trials in factorial in RBD were adopted for the study. Soil bulk density and cone index values were taken at selected sampling depths for determining the initial soil compaction i.e before tillage treatments. Effect of irrigation on soil compaction was also noted at optimum moisture level after irrigation but before tillage treatments. Cone indices of both types of soils were found lesser, after irrigation, than that of before irrigation conditions. Bulk density of soil S1 was higher after irrigation, whereas of soil S2, it was lower than that of before irrigation, before tillage conditions. Cone indices in both types of soils were observed lesser than that of initial compaction, in top 10 cm of soil, after different tillage treatments. Cone indices, at sub-soil depths (at 15 cm and beyond) of both soil types, in P3, P4, P5 and P6 tillage practices were found to be comparatively more that of initial soil compaction for most of the treatments. Bulk density was observed lower than that of initial soil compaction for all the treatments in both soil types. Mean weight diameter of soil clods formed were minimum whereas fuel consumption (l/h) values were maximum in case of rotavator among all the treatment values.ThesisItem Restricted Ergonomic evaluation of walk behind type self propelled paddy transplanter(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2016) Goyal, Gagandeep; Chhuneja, N. K.The self propelled walk behind type paddy transplanters are gaining popularity as they require comparatively lesser initial investment and are easy to operate and maintain as compared to riding type. The ergonomic aspects of walk behind paddy transplanter are of great importance as the operator has to walk behind the machine for a distance of about 10-20 km for 8-hours a day and that also under puddled field conditions. Besides walking in field, stress due to mechanical vibrations, human workload, noise, etc. also affect performance of the operator. The research was planned to study the effect of operational parameters of walk behind self propelled paddy transplanter on physiological parameters, noise, vibrations and work-rest schedule. Hand-arm vibrations were the maximum along x-axis (vertical) and the minimum along y-axis (lateral). Soil type had non-significant effect on vibrations acceleration. However, vibrations increased with increase in forward speed of the paddy transplanter. The mean values of vibrations total value varied from 8.6 to 14.0 m/s2 among all the treatments. The equivalent 8-hours vibrations exposure was found to be ranging between 7.4 and 12.0 m/s2, which was very much higher than the limiting value of 2.8 m/s2 for safe operation of machine. The mean values of sound pressure level varied from 74.0 to 85.7 dB(A) among all the treatments. The mean values of oxygen consumption varied between 607.6 and 1052.6 ml/min with corresponding relative load between 18.1 and 37.3% among all the treatments. The mean values of energy expenditure rate varied between 12.7 and 22.0 kJ/min. The physiological workload was found to be in the category of light work at 1.3 and 1.8 km/h of forward speed of paddy transplanter; but, as moderate work at a forward speed of 2.3 km/h. The physiological responses viz. heart rate, volume of oxygen consumption, discomfort ratings and noise were within the desired limits at the maximum available forward speed of 2.3 km/h of the machine, which also gives the maximum possible field capacity. At this forward speed, a work schedule of about 45 minutes of operating the paddy transplanter followed by a rest of about 15 minutes is desired, which can be easily achieved if the two workers interchange their work after every 45 minutes.ThesisItem Open Access Development of Relationship between Remotely Sensed Data at Different Crop Growth Stages and Yield Monitor Data for Maize Crop(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2016) Sanodiya, Rajeshwar; Manjeet SinghThe average yield of maize in India is only 2.47 tonnes/ha as against the global average of 5.47 tonnes/ha. To meet the food grain requirement of 480 million tonnes by the year 2050 in India, with the increasing challenges of biotic-abiotic stresses experienced by crops, introduction and adoption of modern technologies in Indian agriculture is inevitable. Precision farming is one of the technology which helps to find these goals. Monitoring of crop growth and forecasting its yield well before harvest is very important for better crop and food management. Hence, the study has been carried out to develop the empirical relationship between remotely sensed data at different crop growth stages and yield data for maize crop. Spectroradiometer, infrared camera, N-Tester and chlorophyll content meter (CCM) were used to collect data at different growth stages of the crop to develop relationship with the yield monitor data. The near infrared (NIR) camera was mounted on parrot AR. Drone 2.0 frame for image acquisition. Maize field was harvested by the combine harvester mounted with yield monitor to generate the yield map of the field. The average yield of the field recorded by yield monitor was 3913.9 kg/ha with standard deviation of 390.12 kg/ha and coefficient of variation of 9.33 %. The data revealed that the grid size has non-significant effect on yield and error at 5 % level of significance. Statistical linear regression models were used to develop empirical relationship between the sensor data and yield at three growth stages of maize crop. The yield prediction equations have maximum coefficient of determination (R²) i.e. 0.90, 0.84, 0.86 for NDVI (R630-690 and R760-900), N-Tester and NDVI (NIR camera) respectively at silking stage (R1). While for CCI, the maximum coefficient of determination i.e. 0.87 was observed at dough stage (R4). All sensor values like NDVI, CCI and N-tester values were positively correlated with yield data at all growth stages of maize. The data revealed a close linear relationship between NDVI (NIR camera) and NDVI (R630-690 and R760-900) with coefficient of determination (R2) value 0.80. Similarly there was a close relationship between CCI and N-tester values with coefficient of determination (R2) 0.79. It was concluded that the silking stage (R1 stage) i.e. 55 DAP was the most prominent stage for yield prediction using NDVI. Yield can be predicted 48 days before harvesting using reflectance data captured by spectroradiometer.