ABSTRACT
166Weeding operation is one of the important secondary tillage operations which controls unwanted plants between the rows that consume more fertilizers and reduce the crop yield. Controlling weeds is one of the serious problems facing the farmers. At present, in India, weeding is done by hand hoes, which demand costly labor and consume more time. This problem becomes more acute when shortage of labor faced by farmer. In the view the above facts, the research study was conducted to evaluate the performance of self-propelled intercultivator in cotton and red gram fields. Based on field tests, the following conclusions were drawn:
The effect of approach angle on specific draft and weeding efficiency was significant.
The specific draft was lower and weeding efficiency was higher for 70° approach angle at all forward speeds and all moisture contents.
The specific draft was increased as moisture content increased.
Specific draft was moderate at 13% moisture content.
Weeding efficiency was lower at higher forward speed but it was higher at 0.42 m/s forward speed compared to other forward speed at all moisture contents and all approach angles. Forward speed 0.42 m/s of weeder was considered optimum.
The weeding efficiency was decreased as moisture content was increased. It was optimum at 13%.
The draft of machine for cotton and red gram were 44 and 42.5 kg, respectively.
The power requirement for cotton and red gram were 0.24 and 0.23 hp, respectively.
The weeding efficiency for cotton and red gram were 87.19% and 84.19%, respectively.
Theoretical field capacity for cotton and red gram were 0.071 and 0.072 ha/h, respectively.
Effective field capacity for cotton and red gram were 0.053 and 0.055 ha/h, respectively.
Field efficiency for cotton and red gram were 74.64% and 76.36%, respectively.
Fuel consumption for cotton and red gram were 0.68 and 0.70 L/h, respectively.
Performance index for cotton and red gram were 1925.44 and 2013.23, respectively.
167Plants were not damaged during the weeding operation by using prototype because of wide row crop spacing of the cotton and red gram.
It was observed that operational cost of self-propelled weeder was Rs. 1517.54/ha for cotton compared to Rs. 2000/ha for traditional method of weeding using hand khurpi. The cost saving was 24.12%.
Operational cost was Rs. 1476.54/ha for red gram compared to Rs. 1980/ha for traditional method of weeding by using hand khurpi. The saving in cost was 25.42%.
Bending posture adopted in conventional method is eliminated by theuse of self-propelled intercultivator. The back pain by the operator isalso relieved.
