Furrow design for improving crop establishment of two-wheel tractor operated strip tillage planters in loam and clay loam soils

M Arshadul Hoque,A T M Ziauddin,M M Hossain,Timothy J Krupnik,Mahesh K Gathala

doi:10.25165/j.ijabe.20211403.5906

Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) based production systems may help in achieving more sustainable intensification of cropping systems that use less labour and energy and have higher profit margins, in addition to soil conservation and environmental impact mitigation advantages. But these objectives can only be achieved when the right mechanization options, including appropriate crop establishment equipment, are in place to assist in timely field operations. An urgent need exists, therefore, to fine tune and re-adjust the existing two-wheel tractor (2WT) operated seed drills, with specific reference to the design of blade and furrow openers, while at the same time considering performance in different soil types and environments. To this end, experiments were conducted during 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 at two BARI Regional Agricultural Research Stations in Jamalpur and Barisal, Bangladesh, on a loam and clay loam soil, respectively, to evaluate five types of furrow opener for strip tillage. Shoe and modified shoe-type furrow openers were tested and compared with three inverted-T furrow openers with rake angles of 75°, 65° and 55°. The newly designed inverted-T furrow openers were narrower than the shoe-type openers; they also had a longer, hollow shanks and provided better options for adjustment to achieve the desired seeding depth and line spacing. Compared to shoe-type openers, better seeding depth, uniformity and higher degree of seed coverage were recorded with use of the inverted-T furrow opener with a 65° rake angle. This resulted in better seed coverage in the furrow, a higher emergence rate index, and the highest emergence percentage of maize and mung bean. Our research findings can be generalized to smallholder production systems on loam and clay loam soils where farmers utilize 2WT operated seed drills for crop establishment in both traditional and conservation agriculture-based planting systems. Keywords: two-wheel tractor, strip tillage planter, inverted-T furrow opener, rake angle, conservation agriculture, emergence percentage DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20211403.5906 Citation: Hoque M A, Hossain M M, Ziauddin A T M, Krupnik T J, Gathala M K. Furrow design for improving crop establishment of two-wheel tractor operated strip tillage planters in loam and clay loam soils. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2021; 14(3): 130–139.

Highlights

Over the last forty years, a process of transformation has been underway in Bangladesh agriculture, from the use of animal-drawn land preparation to two-wheel tractor (2WT)-based mechanized land preparation and crop establishment approaches
3.1 Effect of furrow openers on seed coverage Analysis of the variance (ANOVA) results showed that soil type had no influence on maize seed coverage patterns, even though about 19% of the maize seeds were found uncovered in the 60 mm wide strip in both loam and clay loam soils (Table 3)
Similar seed coverage patterns were observed among inverted-T furrow openers with a changing rake angle

Summary

Introduction

Over the last forty years, a process of transformation has been underway in Bangladesh agriculture, from the use of animal-drawn land preparation to two-wheel tractor (2WT)-based mechanized land preparation and crop establishment approaches. More than 700 000 2WTs ( known as power tillers) – imported mainly from China – can be found operating in Bangladesh Their use is multipurpose, but predominantly for land preparation and the transportation of agricultural products and goods[1,2,3]. Current agricultural production systems are relatively energy inefficient and rely on multiple tillage events for land preparation. In some crops, such as maize, this is followed by labour intensive manual crop establishment[4,5]. Scale-appropriate mechanization can have additional ‘knock-on’ benefits including the provision of tools and techniques to build resilience climatic stresses by enabling them to complete operations in a timely manner before heat stress or extreme rainfall events can reduce yields and damage crops intensive rice-based rotational farming systems with multiple alternative crops[1]

Methods

Results

Conclusion