Development and Evaluation of Multifunctional Tillage Implement

Abstract

To improve the mechanization level in India, a low-cost tractor that can be afforded by a normal farmer and also suitable for Indian land size is very much required. One way to reduce the cost of mechanization is optimum utilization of the tractor power for any agricultural operation. For these matching, implements are required for the developed tractor which can use the tractor rated power optimally. To further reduce the cost of operation, two tillage operations can be combined by combining two implements. Hence, a combined Cultivator and Disk Harrow (C-DH) was developed and tested in the Research Farm of College of Agricultural Engineering, Madakasira. The tests were carried out with two speeds and three different depths in each speed. The plots of 50×25m size were selected for the test parameters such as the speed of operation. The time required to travel 25m test length, turning time, depth of operation, the width of operation were recorded. Quality of work was judged by the Mass Median Diameter (MMD) of soil aggregates collected before and after operating C-DH implement in the plot and conducting sieve analysis. From the test results, the average field capacity of the C-DH implement was found to be 0.30 and 0.61 ha/h at 1.8 and 3.4 km/h respectively. The overall performance was expressed in term of Performance Index and was found to be 548.54 at the depth of 13 cm and a speed of 3.4 km/h.