“Agricultural Weeder with Nail Assembly” for Weed Control, Soil Moisture Conservation, Soil Aeration and Increasing Crop Productivity

Abstract

“Agricultural weeder with nail assembly” (Design registration no. 289754 in class 15-03, dt. 13-09-2019, Patent Office Kolkata, GOI) has been developed to mechanically weed out young composite weed flora including germinating ones, since 5-7 days of crop sowing at field capacity (FC), from line sown and broadcast field (cereals, pulses, oilseeds, jute, mesta, flax, sunnhemp,) and horticultural crops (vegetables and flowers etc.). This tool contains i) a nail assembly with 5-6 nos. of nails (6-8 mm dia.) fixed with nuts at 3 cm apart in series ii) scrapper (of different types) and iii) tine, to suit different types of operations. Addition of a boat replacing its front wheels and two conical rotors in the main frame, make it suitable to control weeds in transplanted rice field also. With the help of this tool, 85 to 90 per cent of composite weeds can be controlled. In two successive operations, at 5 days intervals since 5 days after crop emergence, it requires only 12-18 man days/ha and saves Rs.15000 to Rs.20000/ha. It produced 33 to 40 quintal jute fibre/ ha, 4.5 to 5 tonnes of upland and transplanted land rice, 3.0 to 4.5 tonnes of wheat and 15 q mustard/ha under farmers’ field and at ICAR-CRIJAF in different years. It increases soil aeration (Oxygen diffusion rate, ODR: 303 μg O2 m-2 sec-1), keeps the soil cooler (1-50C) and improves soil moisture (4-15%) by soil mulching in drier months and improves jute fibre yield (10-20%) and its water productivity. Till now around 55000 numbers of “Agricultural Weeder with Nail assembly” have been distributed to the jute farmers of West Bengal by Department of Agril. Govt. of WB. Due to its low draft (8-15 kg only at FC), women, youngsters and aged persons can also operate the tool easily in different crop round the year.