MTech

Rice (Oryza sativa) one of the major staple diet of world belongs to genus
Oryza of Gramineae family. The farmers are now being encouraged to adopt
direct seeding of rice in place of conventional transplanting. Direct paddy drum
seeder has eliminated the need of transplantation and hours of manual work which
literally broke the back of the women labourers involved in transplanting of rice
fields. The success of direct seeded rice is fundamentally dependent on the control
of weeds. The yield loss by weeds commonly around 5 to 10 %, but it can extend
upto 50 % in extreme cases. The simultaneous application of the weedicide along
with sowing will minimize the proliferous growth of weeds and will save the
number of repeated weedicide spraying operations.
The weedicide applicator attachment unit is attached to the Moncompu
Model of pre-germinated direct drum seeder attachment powered by Yanji rice
transplanter engine. The weedicide applicator attachment unit mainly consists of
two V star operated battery operated 16 sprayers, spray boom with 8 flood jet
nozzles, guards to protect falling of spray fluid over the pre germinated sown,
pressure gauges and pressure line. Four flood jet nozzles are connected to one
sprayer and another four nozzles to other sprayer, to reduce the hydraulic losses.
Laboratory tests were conducted to determine the spray pattern and suitable
working pressure for the proper working of weedicide applicator.
The laboratory tests and field tests were conducted. From the laboratory
tests, we found that 0.06 kg/cm2 is the best suitable pressure for desired working
of weedicide applicator attachment to apply weedicide in the channel between
ridges on which seeds sown. We observe that the discharge increases with
increasing pressure and decreases with increasing row distance. And the nozzle
when placed transverse to the direction of machine travel is most suitable for
positioning the nozzles on spray boom.
At 0.06 kg/cm2 pressure, it was observed the discharge rate and application
rate was 192 /h and 844.8 /ha respectively, when the machine was moving with
a forward speed of 1.5 km/h. The field capacity and field efficiency of the
machine is found to be 0.226 ha/h and 75.33 %. The cost of operating of
weedicide applicator for powered paddy drum seeder attachment to a riding-float
type self-propelled unit was calculated to be Rs 1880/- per ha. The cost of the
weedicide applicator for powered paddy drum seeder attachment was Rs. 21600/-.
Hence, it is concluded that this machine will be a ideal solution to impede the
proliferous growth of weeds and to reduce the labour cost and time saving.