Mechanization of intercultural operations in Sweet Sorghum

In majority of dry land regions, weeds compete with crops for moisture, nutrition, light and space among several other factors required for plant growth. Moisture conservation is a key of success in dry lands as crops are grown under limiting moisture conditions. Intercultural tools remove weeds between crop rows and create soil mulch. Effective and timely weed control in sweetsorghum crop plays a very important role in improving crop productivity. Conventionally farmers use hand tools like khurpi (hand shovel), wooden hoes, bullock drawn guntaka (blade) etc, which covers less area,labour intensive and less effective.  This leads to prolonged operation leaving weeds in the field for longer time depleting soil resources (Srinivas etal 2010). Therefore, new power operated tools like power weeder and improved manual weederwere identified for sweet sorghum crop and introduced in the village.

CRIDA Manual Weeder

It has a wheel mounted on pipe frame (Fig.1). The weeding tool is mounted on frame and runs behind the wheel. Its coverage is about 10 times faster than weeding with khurpi (shovel). It also improves comfort and working efficiency of operator. It is operated by push pull mode and an average women worker can perform the weeding operation.

Bullock drawn weeders (Guntaka):  Bullock drawn power weeders can be used comfortably in between the rows which also makes earthing up operation during weeding. They are available at local level with 30 cm and 45 cm blades which can be easily drawn by a pair of bullocks.

 Mini Power Weeder:

It is self-propelled moving type intercultural implement. It has rotary tynes as working element and mounted below the front end of frame. Engine is mounted on the working element at the front end of the frame. The handle body with clutch and gear lever arrangement is attached to rear side of the frame.   A 1.5 h.p. engine provides power for forward movement and a rotary blade attached to frame removes the weed and pulverizes the soil. This machinery has better maneuverability in the field during operation and turning. Weed control was effective and created soil mulch desirable under dry land condition.

Field Evaluation of Power Weeder:

Power weeder (Fig.2) was demonstrated in cluster village for creating awareness among farmers. Farmers are satisfied with its working and feel useful in sweet sorghum crop by best weed removal in short time and better maneuverability in the field. It works with 1.5 hp petrol engine. Clutch can be used to engage and disengage the rotor during operation. Training cum demonstration wasplanned at Ibrahimbad village to test its feasibility and also to create awareness during the season.

Farmers’ experience with power weeders: Many farmers opined that the power weeders were much useful in the present day oflabour and bullock power shortage for weeding and intercultural operations which have to be completed in time. It was observed that, the delay in weeding operation by 10 days affected the crop yields significantly. The cost of power weeding will be around Rs. 625/ha. The plant damage was also minimized with the power weeders when compared to the other methods.