Research Article | Open Access
Design and Performance Evaluation of Mechanical Weeder
Lokesh Madineni , Anurudh Maddi , Ayyanna D.S , Harish.B , Ramya sri.K
Pages: 2287-2294
Abstract
Soil tillage, crop production, and animal husbandry are all part of agriculture. Weed management
with herbicides and tractors is only possible if the plants are seeded in straight and parallel rows, as weeds grow
between them. It is critical to prepare the field before planting in order to achieve optimal outcomes. Manual
labour necessitates a large workforce and accounts for roughly 25% of overall labour demand, which is typically
900-1200 M hours per hectare. By breaking the surface crust, aerating the soil, encouraging the microflora of
the soil, minimizing soil moisture evaporation, and promoting infiltration of rainwater, mechanical control of the
grass successfully prevents weeds and promotes cultivation. To cultivate using a cultivator mechanically.
Following these issues, a multi-stage weeder was designed and constructed in Creo 2.0 software for multi-stage
weed treatment. The performance of this newly created equipment was tested both in the lab and in the field.
The field capacity was 0.30 ha/h, and the field efficiency was 83.06 percent at a speed of 1.36 km/h. At a wheel
slippage of 4.62 percent, the multi-stage weeding efficiency was 80.47 percent for single pass and 68.26 percent
for double pass
Keywords
Weed control, Multi-stage weeding, wheel slippage, weeding efficiency