DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF LOW HP TRACTOR OPERATED SPRAYER WITH WIPER MECHANISM
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Date
2018
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Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University
Abstract
World crop yields are reducing every year between 20%-40% due to the damage
wrought by plant pests and diseases. About 30%-35% of the annual crop yields in India
get wasted because of pest. India has a large and diverse agricultural sector which
requires quite effective methods for spraying pesticides at a desired rate, in minimal
time for reducing yield losses. Mechanization of agriculture plays a major role in timely
and economic operations to produce high yield with low inputs. Pesticides are critical
inputs for crop production worldwide and are expected to continue to play a major role
for protect most crops from insect-pests and disease.
In conventional method of spraying, one person covers less area of land (about
0.4 ha day-1). Mechanization of plant protection equipment needs for timely application
of pesticides to produce good yield. In India, marginal and small land holdings
contribute 67.10% and 17.91% for agriculture. In marginal and small holdings, low
horse power tractors ranging 18-22 hp are getting popular in India than the large
tractors. Development of compactable equipment to low horse power tractors was
needed to meet the demand of farm operations.
The present study was conducted on the development and performance
evaluation of low hp tractor operated sprayer with wiper system. Wiper system in the
sprayer, specilitates automatic back and forth moment of spray guns without need of
labour. Before developing a sprayer, all the required components were drawn and
assembled in Creo 3.0 software for fabrication accuracy. Performance parameters
evaluated in laboratory conditions and in field groundnut crop was chosen to test the
developed wiper sprayer. Cost economics of developed sprayer were also determined.
Results obtained for developed sprayer was compared with boom sprayer. ImageJ
software was used for image analysis to find droplet size, density and percentage of area
covered on crop.
During evaluation, it was observed that the optimum combination of wiper sprayer
obtained at 25° of oscillating angle of spray gun from its center, 2000 kPa of operating
pressure, 0.9 m height of spray from ground and gap between nozzles 3 m with the
maximum swath width of 9.45 m in static position of sprayer. Uniform coefficient of
89.81% was observed at static position of sprayer. Minimum droplet VMD range of
developed sprayer varied from 223 to 358 μm were observed over boom sprayer as 313
to 480 μm. Maximum droplet density of developed sprayer varied from 87 to 151
droplets cm-2 was observed over boom sprayer of 16 to 95 droplet cm-2. Percentage of
area covered on crop varied from 12.34% to 29.83% cm-2 over boom sprayer of 11.4%
to 34.78%. Lower applications rates of developed sprayer varied from 181 to 423 L ha-1
over boom sprayer of 617.14 to 1440 L ha-1. Higher effective field capacity of
developed sprayer varied from 0.9072 to 2.0618 ha h-1 over boom sprayer of 0.3665 to
0.835 ha h-1. Low operation cost of developed sprayer varied from 150 to 310.2 Rs ha-1
over boom sprayer of 360 to 746 Rs ha-1 as change in operating speed from 1.5 to 3.5
km h-1. Saving of cost (%) over boom sprayer found that 58.43%, 58.35% and 58.33%,
whereas the saving of time 59.7%, 59.88% and 59.66% over boom sprayer at forward
speeds of 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 km h-1, respectively. Saving of labour cost (%) over
conventional method found as 50.37%, 68.4% and 76%, whereas the saving of time
94.5, 96.64 and 97.57% over conventional method at forward speeds of 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5
km h-1, respectively. Developed wiper sprayer given better results with saving of
operating cost over boom sprayer 58.43% at 1.5 km h-1.
Keywords: Wiper system; VMD; Image analysis; cost economics
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D5744
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