DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF PERMANENT RAISED BED SEED-CUM-FERTILIZER PLOT DRILL
Loading...
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING ICAR- INDIAN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE NEW DELHI–
Abstract
In India, Green Revolution has increased food grain production and achieved
self-sufficiency in agricultural production, but it also resulted in degradation of soil,
water and air quality. The proper management of huge quantity of agricultural
residue generated due to improved land-use pattern is also one of the big challenges
at present. Considering all these facts, there should be a call for increasing
agricultural production by promoting sustainable agriculture with adoption of the
best scientific techniques such as conservation agriculture. The conservation
agriculture is one of the best measures to protect both environment as well as natural
resources without affecting the level of agricultural production. It involves planting
under residue conditions with minimum manipulation of soil along with crop
rotation. Controlling in field traffic is one of the components of conservation
agriculture, which is accomplished by permanent raised bed cropping system.
However, area under conservation agriculture in India is still only about 1.5 million
hectares (Jat et al., 2012). Adoption of conservation agriculture in the crop based
research institutes is one of best solutions to promote conservation agriculture. More
than thousand research centers in the country are engaged in different crop-based
agricultural research and very few of them possess improved farm machinery for
experimental plots. The main constraint for adoption of conservation agriculture in
varietal development experimental research is the absence of appropriate seeders. In
view of the above investigation, the present study was undertaken to design and
develop an experimental field plot drill to achieve precision in drilling of seeds and
fertilizers on permanent raised bed.
The physical properties of five wheat varieties (HD-2967, DBW-17, PBW550,
HDCSW-16 and HDCSW-18) and two granular fertilizers (Prilled urea and
DAP) relevant for the development of metering mechanism were determined. The
Oyjord metering mechanism was developed and tested for three distributors (four,
six and eight openings) and three seed rates (67, 75 and 100 kg ha-1
). The four types
of furrow openers (Inverted T-type furrow opener with plain rolling coulter, single
disc furrow opener, double disc furrow openers and double disc furrow opener with
ii
plain rolling coulter) were developed and soil bin studies were conducted to study the
effect of furrow openers at three forward speeds (1.5, 2 and 2.5 km h-1
) on soil
physical properties i.e. moisture retention, bulk density and penetration resistance;
and maize stalk residue cutting in three densities (3, 4 and 5 t ha-1
) to optimize
furrow opener and speed of operation. The data observed in laboratory and soil bin
study were analyzed using SAS software to optimize operating conditions and design
values for the successful sowing of wheat in maize fallow under conservation
agriculture. The obtained information was used for designing and selection of
different components of plot seed drill. The double disc furrow opener with plain
rolling coulter cut 100% maize stalk residue at maximum speed of 2.5 km h-1
, but
due to limitation of manual feeding of seed and fertilizer, the operational speed was
kept at 1.5 km h
-1
. The four row distributor with 100 kg ha-1
seed rate was found
suitable for metering mechanism. A prototype was designed using CAD software
“Pro E Wildfire 4.0” and fabricated based on the findings of laboratory and soil bin
studies and optimum operating conditions and design values obtained.
The metering mechanism used in permanent raised bed seed-cum-fertilizer
plot drill has hopper of 1390.2 cm
3
volumetric capacity, feeding cells with 66.23 cm3
volumetric capacity and seeds and fertilizer distributor with DC motor with rotational
speed of 2000 RPM. The radius of gyration of star feeder was 125 mm with
rotational speed of 0.7 rad s-1
. The internal diameter of distributor outlets and seed
delivery tube was kept as 25 mm. The furrow opener are double disk with plain
rolling coulter, which has flat discs of 360 mm diameter and fixed at an angle of 15°
with vertical plain. The boot of the furrow opener was attached at height above 50
mm from cutting edge of disk, whereas the lower edge of seed tube was 50 mm
above fertilizer tube and the coulter was set 50 mm below the lower cutting edge of
disc of furrow opener.
The performance of permanent raised bed seed cm fertilizer plot drill was
tested in maize harvested field with complete residue (5 t ha-1
). Different performance
parameters were calculated along with cost economics of operation for comparison
with commonly practiced conventional experimental plot drill.
The field capacity and field efficiency of permanent raised bed seed-cumfertilizer
plot were 0.172 ha h-1
and 80% respectively. The plant stand of HD-2967,
DBW-17, PBW-550, HDCSW-16 and HDCSW-18 were 225, 282, 225, 276 and 314
iii
per square meter in case of conventional experimental plot drill and 312, 366, 340,
332, 375 per square meter in case of permanent raised bed seed-cum-fertilizer plot
drill respectively. Similarly the average grain yield in case of permanent raised bed
seed-cum-fertilizer plot drill of HD-2967, DBW-17, PBW-550, HDCSW-16 and
HDCSW-18 were 4.6, 5.5, 4.8, 5.4 and 6.3 t ha-1
respectively, compared to 3.7, 4.2,
3.7, 4.9 and 5.1 t ha-1 for conventional experimental plot drill respectively. The cost
of sowing of experimental plot for developed permanent raised bed seed-cumfertilizer
plot drill was Rs. 473/- per hour, which was similar to conventional
experimental pilot drill, but it gave better plant stand and more yield. Therefore, a
permanent raised bed seed-cum-fertilizer plot drill is recommended for use by
research institutes working on varietal development and improvement for timely and
uniform sowing under conservation agriculture.
Description
T-9571
Keywords
null