Abstract
Water content plays a crucial role in seed development, particularly at the seed sowing stage, and it ensures good seed germination. A water seed drill was designed and developed to provide an optimum quantity of water that is required for the soil in the same furrow, right after seed placement. This soil moistening method not only improves the moisture level in the field, but it also saves a large amount of water by applying the needed water quantity in the line of sowing after seed placement. The water seed drill consisted of a wheat seed drill, a water application system, and a tank with 400 L capacity. The water seed drill yielded a 48% higher germination count than when wheat is planted through a conventional method. The data recorded also showed that the water seed drill raised the soil moisture to 24% from the existing 13% soil moisture content. The total operational cost of the water seed drill was 2.57-fold greater than the conventional seed drill, but the output cost of the water seed drill was 2.15 times (49,000 Rs/ha) more than that of the conventional seed drill.
Highlights
The increasing worldwide population is a serious problem, as the agriculture sector needs to produce large amounts of food to meet their requirements
The sowing operation was performed with a forward speed of 4.25 km/h and a maximum water flow rate of 90 mL/s (90, 70, and 50 mL/s), based on the existing moisture content in the soil, while the conventional plot was sown at same speed, with no water application
The soil moisture deficit in the soil at wheat sowing time is the major constraint for good seed germination, and crop yield in the Pothwar region of Pakistan
Summary
The increasing worldwide population is a serious problem, as the agriculture sector needs to produce large amounts of food to meet their requirements. A water seed drill helps in improving the germination of the crop, but it saves the water that is required for irrigation To achieve this objective, and to adopt resource conservation technology, the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, has designed, developed, and tested a water seed drill. To adopt resource conservation technology, the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, has designed, developed, and tested a water seed drill This experiment was conducted to check the effect of this technology on soil moisture, seed germination, the number of tillers per plant, and the wheat yield. The objective was to replace conventional sowing with water seed drill sowing in arid and semiarid regions, in order to ensure the timely sowing of the crop in the absence of rainfall
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