Vol. 11, Special Issue 5 (2022)

Author(s):
Omprabha, VM Victor, Nawang Palden Bhutia, Shambhu Singh Paikra and Nisha Verma

Abstract:
Animal powered plastic mulch laying machines were developed to mechanize traditional plastic mulching. This animal powered machine can be used for agriculture mostly in vegetable crops and some other hybrid crops. The machine components are press wheel, plastic mulch supporting unit, soil covering unit and hitching unit which are attached to the main frame of the machine. Animal drawn plastic mulch laying machine will be effortless, reduced labour cost and time, it will do both work i.e. laying the plastic mulch sheet and covering both sides of the sheet with soil by earthing unit. Various parameters such as soil clods diameter, soil moisture content, bulk density, draft, speed of operation, power requirement, time loss in turning and field efficiency were measured. The average soil moisture content of the raised beds was found 17.77% on dry basis and 15.08% on wet basis. The average values of Mean mass diameter of soil clod size was observed as 42.57 mm, which was better for raised seed bed preparation. The Draft, Speed of operation, Field efficiency was found 447.86 N, 1.35 km/h, and 70 %, respectively. The main objective of making this machine is to provide machines at the least cost to small scale farmers.