Development and evaluation of adjustable self-propelled rotor power weeder for row crops

Weed cause serious damage to the crop yield by sharing land, water, soil nutrients, sunlight, etc., which increases cost of cultivation, impairment of quantity and quality. Weed causes reduction in yield, if proper farming practices are not followed. The objective of study is development and evaluation of self-propelled rotor power weeder by considering weeding efficiency, plant damage, field efficiency, performance index, fuel consumption, cost and time of operation. For power weeder an adjustment provision was made to suitable for both 30 and 60 cm spaced crops i.e., groundnut, maize, chilli and cotton. The weeding efficiency and plant damage was evaluated at 30 and 60 days after sowing (DSA). At an optimum moisture content of 13%, the weeding efficiency attained a maximum in all four crops of 30 and 60 DAS. A 3 to 4% of more plant damage was observed at 60 DAS as compared to 30 DAS in all the crops. The highest field efficiency and performance index was found to be 80.07% and 93.09 in maize crop. The average reduction in cost of weeding and time saving by power weeder over manual weeding were 74.84% and 94.51% duly.