Status and future needs of farm mechanisation in System Of

Status and fu= ture needs of farm mechanisation in System Of Rice Intensification (SRI)

&= nbsp;

P. Aum Sarma¹, Sudhakar<= /span> Reddy² and A. Mrunalini³

¹Agricultural Research Insti= tute (ABGRAU), Rajendranagar, = Hyderabad 500030, AP<= /p>

²A.P. A= groes, Hyderabad – 500004, AP

³Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad – = 500 030, AP

&nb= sp; To ensure timeliness in farm operations, precision in metering of inputs, redu= ce drudgery and enhance input efficiency, farmers have adopted agricultural mechanization, which is an indicator of modernization, which is an indicato= r of modernization of agriculture. Even those farmers who cannot afford to own the agricultural machinery are utili= zing the services on custom hire basis. The Indian industries equally supported the pace of mechanization by manufacturing and marketing implements and machines suitable to our conditions. The farmers to-da= y feel proved machinery such as rotovator operated by tractors, drip and micro – sprinklers, pneumatic planter, combine harvester, etc.

&nb= sp; Mechanization has become a necessity to reduce drudgery in farm operations including woman farm workers. The use of farm machinery depends upon the farm power sources available for various tractive and stationary operations. Human and animal power has traditi= onally been used for various farm operations.&nbs= p; These are ‘renewable energy’ or ‘bio-energy’ sources which are now supplemented and substituted with electro-mechanical power sources. Agriculture is= now chemicalized to achieve high productivity levels. Seeds, fertilizers, and chemicals = are costly inputs and there is need to develop farm equipments that bring preci= sion in metering and placement of seeds or seedlings and at the same time assure timeliness it field operations. This requires high capacity power operated equipment. The crops are protected from pests, diseases and from weeds, through the application of chemicals. The application of these inputs in achieved through ‘human power’ in traditional agriculture if labour is available in abundance. Animate power contributed 60% of t= he total farm power in 1971 – 72 and mechanical and electrical together contributed only 40%. In 2000-01 the contribution from animated power has reduced to 16.38% and the share of mechanical and electrical power increase= d to 83.62%. These equipments requ= ire fossil fuel termed as ‘direct sources of energy’ =

&nb= sp; The human power is mostly commonly used under SRI cultivation for marking of ro= w to row and plant to plant, transplanting and weeding operations. Manual labour remains the highest input in rice production i= n the country and most uprooting & transplanting, Weeding, Harvesting is still done by hand using women. The millions of farm m= en and women work in these activities without any mechanical advantage experiencing drudgery and resulting in low output, more time at task, physical strain and other occupational problems. = Bringing in mechanisation to more= people, especially to women who do much of the laborious and back breaking works. Agricultural Engineers of the country has succeeded in designing several ha= nd operated implements and concerted efforts were made to modify according to = the need but the advantage of these implements is yet to be received by the lar= ge number of farm men and women in different cropping systems. Nevertheless, when the tools were designed for us by men and women, the compatibility of the user to the implement has not been confirmed and therefore this factor became one of the recognized reasons for low technology used by men and women for different f= arm activities.

&nb= sp;

&nb= sp; SRI technology uses ‘less’ external inputs. It uses only 2 kg seed per acre as against 20 kg per acre in the conventional system. Plant population is relatively low compared to the conventional system. It uses very less chemical fertilizers and pesticides but uses more organic manures. SRI is very = labour intensive.&nb= sp; Transplanting and weeding require 50% more man days. Rice grown with this technology has large root volume, profuse and strong tillers with big panicles.

&nb= sp; Under SRI cultivation seedlings are to be planted in a square pattern of 25x25 cm, wider and not in rows only. S= ingle seedlings are to planted at the intersection. This can be pulled by a single per= son or can be pulled by a pair of men in the case of heavy soil. Weeding is an important farm opera= tion of good cultivation and increasing the yield. The introduction of paddy row seed= er has enabled paddy planting in rows. Paddy is also grown in rows under SRI cultivation. The newly IRRI developed weeders which was modified by the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University AICRP on Farm Implement and Machinery Centre can be used for efficient weeding in rows. The correct rows are obtained since planting is done in rows by maintaining plant to plant spacing using marker. The implement reduced drudgery due to less time taken (50-55%) compared to hand weeding.&n= bsp; The use of the equipment resulted in saving of cost of operation by 45%. Farmers were of the opin= ion that cono weeder op= erations in standing position reduce the fatique. The weeding ef= ficiency various between 75-100% in heavy soil and loose soil respectively. 1 acre area can be cover in a day = of 8 hrs using manual Cono Weed= er.

&nb= sp; There are many mechanized equipments such has Tractor drawn = Rotavator, Pulverising, Tractor drawn combined tillage too= l, Land leveller, Tractor drawn leveller and Channel can be safely used for field preparation before transplanting u= nder SRI. Power weeder, self propelled biasi cultivator developed by IC= AR are available for weeding operation they can be modified for weeding in rice cultivation. The women having grater role in weeding operation and experiments on physiological work load= of women while using Manual Conoweeder (ANGRAU) in= SRI Cultivation in comparison to conventional method has revealed that the cono weeders could increa= se the productivity of woman by two times and save 76% of the women’s time through improvement brought into their pace of performance. Improvement cou= ld be brought in their postures, their by facilitating them to walk comfortably along the rows while weeding with manual cono <= span class=3DSpellE>weeder. Significant relief in muscular skeletal pains= at nick and low back regions was also experienced by women, the results through the above ergonomic study is useful to establish that optimized technology could potentially enhance the pace of work and productivity of women in pad= dy weeding and reduced the muscular fatigue at few sensitive zones. The current scenario regarding mechanization of weeding under SRI at 10, 20, 30, 40, da= ys after transplanting by ICAR and Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University = on demand of farmers and policy makers of the state of Andhra Pradesh an R&= ;D project titled “Design Development and Evaluation of self propelled <= span class=3DSpellE>cono weeder” was ap= proved to Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, AICRP on Farm Implements and Machinery centre based on need. This is four row self propelled Cono Weeder developed by Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University with assistance of A.P. Agroes for weeding in SRI Cultivation. The prototype was tested at SRI field at ARI Rice scheme and N= SP rice field during current season i.e. Kharif 20= 06-07 for weeding under various field conditions Row transplanting of paddy, Dire= ct sowing with manual paddy row seeder, SRI transplanting. <= /p>

&nb= sp; Initial trials were taken at Rice = Plots in Rajendranagar and the machine is found suita= ble for light and medium soils. I= n case of heavy black soils, the machinery needs further modification in certain aspects like using a less weight engine and changing the design of cage whe= els as well as the shape of the Cone. It may take some more time to finalize the design of a mechanized Co= ne Weeder for SRI Cultivator. Approximate area that can be weede= d is 2 Acres.

&nb= sp; The prototype was tested at ARI Rice scheme and NSP SRI rice field during curre= nt season i.e. Kharif 2006-07 for weeding under following field conditions:

- &nb= sp; = Row transplanting of paddy

- &nb= sp; = Direct sowing with manual paddy row seeder

- &nb= sp; = SRI transplanting.

&nb= sp; The observation shown that fabricated self propelled cono<= /span> weeder needs refinement and not suitable especi= ally in heavy soil due to following reason

- &nb= sp; = Weight of machine

- &nb= sp; = Moisture content and stick ness of the soils

- &nb= sp; = Turning at head lands

- &nb= sp; = Movement of operator

&nb= sp; Keeping in view of above problems, machine will be refine by using low weight engine, providing clutch and reduction of weight of machin= e to make suitable for all types of soil and field condition. =