Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

Plastic mulch sheet has shown significant effect over farming technique. It has several advantages like weed control, moisture conservation, yield enhancement etc. Now a days drip irrigation is become necessity. When mulching is practiced along with drip irrigation, provides best results. At present, farmers have to lay the drip line and mulching sheet manually. To provide a better option, a plastic mulch cum drip lateral laying machine was developed at PAE, AAU, Dahod for the small farmers. The performance of the machine was evaluated by determining the draft, power requirement, theoretical field capacity, effective field capacity, field efficiency, punching uniformity, punching efficiency and mulch sheet covering. Machine was tested at two levels of mulch width 0.75 m & 1.20 m and three levels of thickness (25, 30, 40 um). The results were analysed statistically using factorial randomize block design. Average forward speed of developed machine was found as 1.98 km/h. Draft and power requirement were 29.14 kgf and 0.229 hp, respectively for 0.75 m width and 25 um thickness of plastic sheet. Maximum theoretical field capacity (0.292 ha/h)and field efficiency (52.98%) were found for the width of 1.20 and 075 m, respectively with plastic sheet thickness 25um.The punching efficiency of the machine was found as 98% in the mulch thickness of 25 um. The punching uniformity of the machine was found as 91.89 % in the mulch thickness of 25 um. The amount of soil per meter length of the mulch sheet edge was found as 10.06 kg.