Performance of No-Till Drill for Establishment of Rice and its Comparison with Drum Seeder and Conventional Method

Abstract

In Tarai region of state of Uttaranchal, mainly contractual laborers are engaged for accomplishing rice transplanting, which is very tedious and labor intensive operation. Also they do not maintain required plant population resulting in poor yield. Shortage of agricultural laborers during the peak transplanting season is often faced by the farmers due to which timely transplanting is jeopardized again contributing to lower field. Direct seeding of dry or pre-germinated rice through suitable machineries could be a solution to this problem. This will not only reduce labor and production cost but also increases turn-a-round time for the subsequent crop. Considering the above facts, an experiment was laid down during 2001 and 2002 to evaluate the performance of Pantangar zero-till ferti-seed drill (T1) for establishment of rice and the result was compared with manually operated rice seeder (T2) and conventional method of transplanting (T3). The experimental results indicate higher plant population with no-till drill as compared to rice seeder and transplanting method. The grain yield was recorded maximum for T1 followed by T2 and T3. The economic analysis shows lower cost of production and higher benefit-cost ratio in order. Based on the result, no-till drilling and drum seeding could be recommended to the farmers in labor scarcity area for establishment of rice. WYDAJNOŚC SIEWU BEZPOŚREDNIEGO RYŻU W POROWNANIU Z SIEWEM METODĄ KONWENCJONALNĄ I SIEWNIKIEM BĘBNOWYM