Development and evaluation of tractor operated bund former for mulched field
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Date
2020
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
In 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.
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Citation
Sood, Ashish (2020). Development and evaluation of tractor operated bund former for mulched field (Unpublished M.Sc. thesis). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.