In order to take full advantage of annual precipitation in dry land agriculture, harvesting entire runoff is essential.In a two-year farmer's field demonstration at Vijayapur (Karnataka), moisture conservation practices (compartmental bunding, tied ridgind and conventional method) were evaluated for sorghum grown under rainfed conditions.The results indicated that compartmental bunding conserved 15.5 and 24.07 per cent for 2018-19 and 14.07 and 30.55 per cent for 2019-20 more soil moisture as compared to tied ridging and farmer's practice treatments.Compartmental bunding showed better performance in plant height, grain yield, fodder yield, gross return, net return and B:C ratio over tied ridging and farmer's practice.Compartmental bunding practice also exhibited higher grain yield of sorghum 2740 kg ha -1 and 2894 kg ha -1 (for 2018-19 and 2019-20), fodder yield 5621 kg ha -1 and 5883 kg ha -1 (for 2018-19 and 2019-20), gross return Rs. 35100 and Rs.358870 (for 2018-19 and 2019-20), net return Rs. 22700 and Rs.23580 (for 2018-19 and 2019-20) and B:C ratio 2. 79 and 2.87 (for 2018-19 and 2019-20).
Improper weed control methods can cause about 30–35 per cent reduction in crop yield. The power operated paddy weeder was designed and developed for weeding of paddy crops. In Konkan region, paddy is the major crop cultivated under wet land condition. The hand weeding method using labours is widely adopted at present for paddy. It is costly and drudgerious. Manually operated cono weeders are being used in some of the pockets of Konkan. It’s capacity is less (upto 0.12-0.15 ha/day) and its operation is also heavy due to its weight (7.8 kg). Therefore developed power weeder was designed. It was consisted of engine, gear box, propeller shaft, rotor with blade and main frame and float. The reduction gear box (ratio32.5:1) was used to reduce the speed to 200 rpm. The two types of rotors were developed viz., L shape blade and hexagonal serrated blade. The serrated blade has resulted into 9.41 per cent higher weeding efficiency than L shape blade. The L shape blade has resulted into 1.02 per cent minimum plant damage than serrated blade. The lowest fuel consumption of power weeder was found with of L shape blade as 0.576 l/h at 40 DAS while the maximum fuel consumption was found on using of serrated blade as 0.68 l/h at 20 DAS. The maximum field capacity was found with L shape blade (0.0266 ha/h) than serrated blade (0.0213 ha/h) at 40DAS which is 30.39 per cent higher.
This article reviews the basic relationships between the soil parameters, tool geometry and operational parameters on the nature of soil disturbance and draft of the tillage tool.These relations will assist designers and operators of tillage implement or tillage tool in selecting the optimal design of the soil working elements and their supporting frame.
In this study, Amla segments dried in different drying methods like sun drying and solar tunnel drying and with different pre-treatments like 2 per cent Sodium Chloride and 0.1 per cent Potassium metabisulphite solutions. The treated samples significantly showed variations in some quality parameter of amla segments. The samples dried in solar tunnel dryer gave lower moisture content compared with that of sun dried samples. The lowest water activity were found to be in 2 per cent Sodium Chloride pre-treated amla segments dried in solar tunnel drying. Solar drying of pre-treated amla segments in solar tunnel dryer resulted in 20-30 per cent reduction in drying time as compared to open-air sun drying. The highest rehydration ratio was found to be in 0.1 per cent Potassium metabisulphite treated amla samples. The quality of rehydrated amla segments dried in solar tunnel dryer was superior when compared to amla segments dried in open sun drying method. The highest vitamin C retention was found to be 125.68 (mg/100 g) in untreated amla samples dried in solar tunnel dryer. The quality of rehydrated amla segments dried in solar tunnel dryer was superior when compared to amla segments dried in open sun drying method. The problem of interruption by rain and cloudy period was solved. The samples dried in the solar tunnel dryer were completely protected from rain, insectsand contamination by dust and were of good quality dried product.
The present study was carried out to predict the performance different type’s weeder in cotton crop so that efficient machine can be selected by farmer. The crop and machine performance parameter were recorded at three stages of cotton crop i.e. pre-square, square and flowering. The soil resistance was recorded before, just after weeding (3rd stage) and at the time of harvest. Yield data (g/plant) was recorded under all the treatments taken in both varieties. The weeding efficiency of different weeder was found between 74 to 89 per cent. The field capacity of tractor operated inter row rotary weeder was in the range of 0.54 to 0.59 ha/h whereas it was 0.8 ha/ h in tractor operated high clearance cultivator, 0.16 ha/h with engine operated power weeder and 0.05 ha/h with manual hand hoe. The per cent saving in cost of operation with mechanical weeder over manual hand hoe was in the range of 80 to 93. The B:C ratio of mechanical weeder selected for study was in the range of 1.57 to 4.4 and payback period was in the range of 0.44 to 1.7 years. Time saving over manual hand hoe in weeding operation with the use of tractor operated weeder was 90 to 93 per cent whereas in engine operated weeder it was 68.7 per cent over manual hand hoe. The per cent saving in labour requirement with the use of mechanical weeder was in the range of 96 to 99 per cent over manual hand hoe. From result obtained from the study tractor operated weeder (operating width= 1500mm) was found suitable for cotton crop.
