Optimization of ridge and furrow dimensions for development of tractor drawn multi crop ridger seeder
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Date
2009
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Publisher
CCSHAU
Abstract
Dry land agriculture contributes a major share to economy of India’s total
agricultural production. Therefore for sustainability of dry land agricultural production
needs adequate emphasis on significance & choice of proper agricultural machinery for
various agricultural operations. Heavy crust formation during the rainy season and
inadequacy of moisture at the time of seeding of rabi crops especially gram and raya are
the most important reasons of obtaining low yields in the dry farming areas. During
Kharif season, moisture is generally high at planting stage but moisture conservation
becomes important during the growing season. Whereas conservation practices have to be
adopted during kharif season on the fallow lands where rabi crops have to be raised. In
this context ridge and furrow system of planting of crops with the help of ridger seeder
ensures seed placement in wet or moist zone which results in better seed germination.
The ridger seeder can be used for sowing of both kharif and rabi crops with
shallow soil cover over the seed. The advantage of sowing by ridger seeder is that it
makes the dry upper layer soil into ridges and sowing was done in the furrows at
appropriate depth. It also works efficiently even when the moisture is at a depth of 15-20
centimeters.
The ridger seeder machine can not control all the factors involved in seedling
emergence but it can have an important influence on formation of appropriate size of
ridge & furrow and precise control of seed depth, placement of seeds into moist zone and
non crusting condition above the seeds and good germination. So for development of
appropriate ridger seeder these factors should be optimized to get better crop stand.
Therefore, in this study an attempt has been made to optimize the ridge furrow
dimensions as well as the draft requirement of the multicrop ridger seeder.
The ridger bottom of potato planter was selected from four different type of ridger
bottoms tested (ridger bottom of existing ridger seeder (B1), ridger bottom of bed planter
(B2),ridger bottom of sugar cane planter (B3) and ridger bottom of potato planter (B4))
for use in improved multicrop tractor drawn ridger seeder. Ridger bottom of this had
minimum draft requirement i.e. 150 kg /bottom as compared to other three ridger bottoms
(i.e. B1(159.00 kg/ bottom), B2(163.25 kg/ bottom) and B3 (177.30 kg/bottom)
respectively). Ridger furrow dimensions of B4 were also close to optimum ridge furrow
dimensions i.e. 600mm, 300mm, 200mm (top, bottom, depth) of furrow.
The optimum ridge furrow dimensions were selected based on maximum seedling
emergence (i.e. 42 seedlings /m row length in raya crop, 14 seedlings/ m row length in
chick pea crop), optimum moisture distribution across the ridge (i.e. 17.68% wb in raya
crop, 17.67% wb in chick pea crop ) & significant saving in irrigation water (i.e. 50.42 %
in raya crop, 52.29% in chick pea crop) under lab. conditions. The ridge furrow
dimensions optimized as 600mm bottom width, 300mm top width & 200mm height of
ridge.
Modifications were carried out & incorporated in ridger bottoms of potato planter
i.e. Extended mild steel plates of appropriate size and shape were attached to ridger
bottom wings at a height of 30cm from base of ridger bottom to avoid dropping of top dry
soil on already sown line. Proper adjustment was done to set the ridger bottom according
to optimum ridge furrow dimensions obtained under lab. condition.
The field evaluation of improved tractor drawn multicrop ridger seeder was
conducted at farmer’s fields of Neolikhurd and Balawas villages & farm area of SST
Department in two crops raya (Cv. RH-30 ) & chickpea (Cv. HC-5). The results were
compared with farmer’s practice.
The field capacity of the machine was found to be 5 ha / day in both raya & chick
pea crops. Seed germination of raya crop sown by improved tractor drawn multicrop
ridger seeder recorded was about 10-14 seedlings / m row length & plant stand of 9-10
plants / m row length. Where as only 6-7 plants / m row length were obtained in farmer’s
practice. In chickpea seed germination of 9-14 seedlings/ m row length& and plant stand
of 7-13 plants/ m row length were observed in crop sown by improved tractor drawn
multicrop ridger seeder in comparison to only 5-7 plants / m row length in sowing done
by seed cum fertilizer drill . This signifies that seed germination was increased to about
two fold by using improved tractor drawn multicrop ridger seeder as sowing machine for
raya and chickpea crops.
The extent of saving in irrigation water was found in to 45% tube well irrigation
source & 39.62 % in canal irrigation water source with the use of tractor drawn multicrop
ridger seeder. In addition moisture across the ridges and furrows recorded after first
irrigation was also quite uniform in a set of ridge furrow ridge i.e.15.17, 18.52, 15.40%
wb., respectively.
The ridge & furrow system of planting of rabi crops with the help of improved
tractor drawn multicrop ridger seeder has manifold advantages over farmer’s practice.
This also adds to recent conservation tillage system in modern agriculture.
Description
Keywords
Dry land agriculture, Planting, Seeder machine