STUDIES ON DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TRACTOR DRAWN ROTARY SPIDER WEEDER FOR ROW CROPS
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Date
2017
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University
Abstract
Tractor operated weeding implements can save about 75 per cent time and 20 per
cent cost as compared to conventional methods. Usually tractor mounted cultivators are
used for weeding and inter-culturing operations in farm but these are not effective for soil
pulverization. The rotary type weeder stirs the soil more accurately, disturb the weed root
and remove them from the soil and pulverize the soil effectively. However, the major
handicap in the adoption of the technology was the non-availability of suitable weeding
equipment. Hence, suitable equipment has to be developed for adoption of weeding
operation under field conditions especially for the wide row spaced crops like cotton,
maize and chillies, where the tractor can be run. Keeping this in view, a study was
undertaken on “studies on design, development and performance evaluation of tractor
drawn rotary spider weeder for row crops” at College of Agricultural Engineering, Bapatla.
A tractor drawn rotary spider weeder suitable for crops was designed, developed and
fabricated at workshop, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College
of Agricultural Engineering (CAE), Bapatla. Performance evaluation of developed weeder
was conducted by varying different forward speeds of 0.56, 1.11, 1.67 and 2.22 ms-1
at M1
(10 ± 0.5%), M2 (15 ± 0.5%) and M3 (20 ± 0.5%) soil moisture levels in cotton, maize and
chilli crops.
The results summarized that the mean bulk density decreased from 1.289× 103
to
1.201× 103
kg m-3 when soil moisture increased from M1 to M3 moisture level. Soil
resistance is an indication of soil hardness measured by cone penotrometer and is
expressed as force per square centimeter required for a cone to penetrate into soil. Soil
resistance decreased from 27×104
to 23 × 104 N m-2 when soil moisture content increased
from M1 to M3 moisture level. Lower weeding efficiencies of 39%, 40% and 43% were
observed at forward speed of 0.56 ms-1
at M1, M2 and M3 moisture levels respectively in
cotton crop at 30 and 45 DAS. Higher rate of increase in weeding efficiency was observed
from 1.11 ms-1
forward operating speed onwards at all soil moisture levels and in all crops.
It was observed that the weeding efficiency was almost constant for further increase of
forward speed from 1.11 to 2.22 ms-1 in all the crops and, also, at all soil moisture levels.
It was observed that there was no significant difference in the weeding efficiencies when
forward speed increased from 1.11 to 2.22 ms-1 at all the soil moisture levels.
There was significantly higher plant damage per cent was recorded at 2.2 ms-1
forward speed of operation at all moisture levels and at 30 and 45 DAS in all the crops.
There was no significant difference in plant damage when forward speed increased from
1.11 to 2.22 ms-1
in all the crops at all soil moisture levels and also at 30 and 45 DAS.
Lowest plant damage percent was observed at forward speed of 0.56 ms-1 at all soil
moisture levels and stages of weeding.
It was observed that the field capacity increased with the increase of forward speed
at all levels of soil moisture content in all the crops and stages of weeding. Lowest field
capacities were obtained at all soil moisture levels at forward speed of 0.56 ms-1
. It was
observed that the draft increased with the increase of forward speed from 0.56 to 2.22 ms-1
at all levels of soil moisture content.
Highest performance index were recorded at 2.2 ms-1 forward speed of operation in
all the crops at 30 and 45 DAS in all the crops. Lowest performance index were recorded at
0.56 m s-1 forward speed of operation at different stages of weeding in all the crops. Field
machine index of the unit was computed as 0.83 and 0.78 at 30 and 45 DAS, respectively.
Highest energy demand was recorded at 30 DAS compared to 45 DAS. Cost of operation
of the weeder was 1491 ha-1 whereas the same with the traditional method of weeding
was 3211 ha-1
. There was a saving of 1720 ha-1
over traditional method of weeding.
Description
D5471
Keywords
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