training needs of mango orchard growers of junagadh district, gujarat state

220 Pages·2016·6.54 MB·English

DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE
EVALUATION OF MANUALLY OPERATED
CONO-WEEDER FOR PADDY CROP

BY
HITESH B. SHAKYA
M.Tech (Agril. Engg.)

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
GODHRA-389 001, GUJARAT
OCTOBER-2016

(REG. No. 04-2074-2012)
DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE
EVALUATION OF MANUALLY OPERATED
CONO-WEEDER FOR PADDY CROP

A
THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE
ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE
OF
Doctor of Philosophy
IN
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
(FARM MACHINERY AND POWER ENGINEERING)

BY
HITESH B. SHAKYA
M.TECH. (AGRIL. ENGG.)

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
GODHRA-389 001, GUJARAT
OCTOBER-2016

(REG. No. 04-2074-2012)
Dedicated To

My Beloved Parents
Abstract
DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF MANUALLY
OPERATED CONO-WEEDER FOR PADDY CROP

Name of Student Major Advisor
HITESHKUMAR BABUBHAI SHAKYA Dr. R.SWARNKAR
Reg. No. 04-2074-2012

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
GODHRA – 369 001

ABSTRACT
In middle Gujarat region, weeding operation in wetland paddy is
largely done by hand or Khurpi. Another method is the use of mechanical weeders
viz., manual or power weeders i.e. engine or tractor operated weeder. Power weeder is
not suitable for wetland condition due to increased weight and operational difficulties
in puddle field condition. Japanese paddy weeder and TNAU conoweeder are the
package equipments and largely adopted by the farmers of the region.
Study was conducted to know the design features of Japanese paddy
weeder and TNAU conoweeder and compared with hand weeding tools “khurpi” in
SRI paddy crop. Results revealed that hand weeding by khurpi was found tedious,
time consuming and laborious, Japanese paddy weeder required more numbers of
labours and incorporation of weeds into the soil, aeration to the root zone of crop and
churning capacity was found very poor. TNAU conoweeder was found more effective
in incorporating weeds into the soil, aerating the root zone of crop and churning of
soil. Even though, it was found drudgerious, time consuming and faced operational
instability with frequent clogging of soil around weeding cone and blades.
To offset this problem, different weeding units were designed
considering diameter of weeding cones as 40 mm, 55 mm,70 mm, 85 mm and 100
mm and different blade angles as 0° ,15°, 30°, 45° and 60° as per two variable five
factor centre composite design in response surface methodology. Serrated bladed and
plain bladed weeding units were developed in such a manner that angle and length of
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cone was kept unchanged as 40° and 130 mm respectively. The developed weeding
units were tested in field condition to evaluate its performance. The performance of
serrated bladed and plain bladed weeding unit was observed in terms of draft, power,
field capacity, weeding efficiency, plant damage, clogging, performance index and
cost of operation. The performance analysis was carried out with Response Surface
Methodology. Statistical significance of the terms was examined by analysis of
variance (ANOVA) for each response using centre composite design. The
significance of all terms in the polynomial was judged statistically by computing the
F-value at probability (P) of 0.1 to 0.01. A complete second order quadratic model
employed to fit the data and adequacy of the model was tested. Optimization of the
process parameters was done by partially differentiating the model with respect to
each parameter, equating to zero and simultaneously solving the resulting function.
The regression coefficients were used to make statistical calculation to generate three-
dimensional plots for the regression model.
The performances of the developed serrated and plain bladed weeding
units were optimized for 100 mm cone diameter and blade angle 29.37° and 30.29°
respectively. Therefore, a common value of cone diameter 100 mm and blade angle
300 may be chosen for serrated bladed and plain bladed weeding units considering the
constraints in fabrication for the development of the weeding units. The overall best
performance results were obtained for serrated bladed weeding unit than plain bladed
weeding unit with higher performance index, soil volume disturbed and lower draft
and power requirement as 3305.12, 8.42 m3 h-1, 12.78 kgf and 0.086 hp respectively.
Thus, serrated bladed weeding unit of 100 mm cone diameter and 30° blade angle
may be chosen for the development of cono-weeder and it was fabricated from
required standard material.
The values of different dependent parameters on this was compared
with one of the most popular manually operated weeder i.e. TNAU conoweeder. The
comparison of the performance of developed cono-weeder with TNAU conoweeder in
terms of different dependent parameters draft, power, field capacity, weeding
efficiency, plant damage, clogging, soil volume disturbed, performance index, cost of
operation and crop growth parameters (plant height, panicle length and yield) was
carried out by field experiment in three replications.
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The result revealed that the developed cono-weeder was found more
suitable for paddy weeding due to highest weeding efficiency 87.77 %, field capacity
0.026 ha h-1 and maximum soil volume disturbed 6.49 m3 h-1. The draft and power
requirement were found lower as 17.94 kgf and 0.094 hp respectively. Plant damage,
numbers of clogging and cost of operation were also found lower as 4.58 %, 3 and
1107.90 ` ha-1 respectively. The overall performance of equipments can be computed
in term of performance index and the highest performance index 2300 was observed
of the developed cono-weeder. The average value of different crop parameters like
plant height, length of panicle and yield were obtained for developed cono-weeder as
84.70 cm, 20.44 cm and 4138.33 kg ha-1 and for TNAU conoweeder as 83.18 cm,
20.27 cm and 4125.53 kg ha-1respectively, which indicated that the effect of
equipment on crop growth parameters was non-significant.
The developed serrated bladed cono-weeder was ergonomically
evaluated and compared with TNAU conoweeder. The working heart rate for male
and female subjects were observed lower i.e. 122 beats min-1 and 125 beats min-1
respectively for weeding operation with developed conoweeder as compared to the
weeding operation with TNAU conoweeder i.e 148 beats min-1 and 152 beats min-1
respectively.
The mean increase in heart rate of male subjects over rest was 53.66
and 78.67 beats min-1 for weeding with developed cono-weeder and TNAU
conoweeder respectively and the mean increase in heart rate of female subjects was
56.66 and 83.33 beats min-1 for weeding with developed cono-weeder and TNAU
conoweeder respectively.The average energy expenditure rate of male and female
subjects for weeding operation with developed cono-weeder were calculated as 16.86
kJ min-1 and 17.82 kJ min-1 which was less than the calculated values for male and
female subjects as 24.14 kJ min-1 and 25.59 kJ min-1 respectively in case of TNAU
conoweeder. Thus, the work with the developed cono-weeder falls under moderate
heavy work, which is under acceptable limits of male and female subjects in wetland
weeding operation. Overall, the performance of the developed cono-weeder was
satisfactory for wetland weeding operation in SRI paddy cultivation.
KEY WORDS: Wetland weeding, Cono-weeder, Weeding efficiency,
Performance Index, Energy expenditure rate
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COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
GODHRA- 389 001

Dr. R.Swarnkar Mobile No.: [phone]
Professor and Head (FMPE) Email: [email protected]
CAET, AAU, Godhra [email protected]

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that thesis entitled “DEVELOPMENT AND
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF MANUALLY OPERATED CONO-
WEEDER FOR PADDY CROP” submitted by HITESHKUMAR BABUBHAI
SHAKYA in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF
PHILOSOPHY (Agril. Engg.) in the subject of FARM MACHINERY AND
POWER ENGINEERING of Anand Agricultural University is a record of bonafide
research carried out by him under my guidance and supervision and the thesis has not
previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or other similar title.

Place: Godhra (R. Swarnkar)
Date: 03 .10.2016 Major Advisor

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DECLARATION

This is to declare that the whole of research work reported herein the thesis for
partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
(Agricultural Engineering) in Farm Machinery and Power Engineering by the
undersigned is a result of investigation done by me under direct guidance and
supervision of Dr. R. Swarnkar, Major Advisor, Professor and Head, Department of
Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering and
Technology, Anand Agricultural University, Godhra and no part of work has been
submitted for any other degree so far.

Place: Godhra (Hitesh B. Shakya)
Date: 03.10.2016
Countersigned by

Place: Godhra (R. Swarnkar)
Date: 03.10.2016 Major Advisor

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is a matter of great pleasure for the author to express his deep sense
of gratitude to his major advisor Dr. Raghunandan Swarnkar, Professor and Head,
Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of Agricultural
Engineering and Technology, Anand Agricultural University, Godhra for his keen
interest, most valuable and inspiring guidance and constant encouragement
throughout the course of this study.
I express my thanks to the authority of Anand Agricultural University
to providing me an excellent opportunity to prosecute for higher study leading to
Ph.D. in the field of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering under faculty
improvement programme as an in-service candidate.
The author gratified to record his sincere thanks to the members of
Advisory committee, Dr. M.L.Gaur, Minor advisor and Professor and Head,
Department of Soil and Water Engineering, CAET, AAU, Godhra, Dr.
Navneetkumar, Associate professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Process
Engineering, CAET, AAU,Godhra, Dr. Pankaj Gupta, Associate professor and Head,
Department of Renewable Energy, CAET, AAU, Godhra and Dr. A.N.Khokhar,
Associate professor, Department of Agricultural Statistics, B.A.College of
Agriculture, AAU, Anand for their valuable suggestion, criticism and constant
encouragement during the course of study.
I find no words to express my deep indebtedness and appreciation to
Dr. D.C.Joshi, Dean, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Anand and
Dr. R. Subbaiah, Principal, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology,
AAU, Godhra for their knee awareness of academic values and continuous moral
support and encouragement during the study period for providing necessary facilities
during the course of study.
I express my sincerely thanks to late Dr. A.M. Mehta, Research
Scientist and Dr D.B.Patel, Assistant Research Scientist, Main Rice Research Station,
AAU, Nawagam and all the staff members for allowing me to conduct the experiment
and providing all the required facilities for successful trial. I also express my sincere
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