Economic and Operational Evaluation of the Use of Two Manual Rotary and Cono Weeders in an Intensive Rice Cultivation System (SRI) in the Central Zone of Burkina Faso

Abstract

Rice, the Burkina Faso's fourth most important cereal in terms of surface area, production and annual per capita consumption, is a staple food. The high demand for rice is far from being met by national production. Several constraints, including weeds, are causing huge yield losses. The aim of this study is to assess the economic impact of innovative mechanical weed management technologies, with a view to increasing the productivity of irrigated rice in Burkina Faso. The Boulbi irrigated paddy field was used for experimentation. The evaluation was carried out on the farm using a completely randomized Fisher block design in a 4-repeat SRI. The performance of three weeders, two designed (rotary (T2) and cono (T3)), was evaluated with the Africa Rice model (T1), compared with weeding with a hand hoe (T0). Data were collected on performance and yield parameters. They were recorded with XLSTAT Version 2016.02.27444 and subjected to descriptive analyses. Results showed that weeding with weeders reduced labor time for the three weeding operations by 55% with T1, 65% with T2 and 70% with T3 compared with T0. The yield increase was 37.20% with T3, 32% with T2 and 22% with T1 compared with T0. The operating account results show additional gains of 386,250 FCFA with T3, 319,417.8 FCFA with T2 and 223,583.9 FCFA with T1 compared to T0.