Resources conservation through laser guided land leveller for paddy cultivation in Raichur, Karnataka

The present study was conducted to evaluate resources conservation using laser guided land leveller at research farms of University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Raichur, Karnataka. The study evaluated the volume of earthwork and cost economics in comparison with traditional levelling method for paddy crop. In paddy cultivation the precision of levelling depends on volume of earthwork in the cut or fill with respect to the desired plane in an area. The results indicated that the standard deviation of reduced levels of grid points of 10x10 m before levelling was 23.97 cm and after using the laser leveller was 1.59 cm. The standard deviation of reduced levels before and after levelling was 12.18 and 7.97 cm in traditional levelling. In case of traditional levelling the average volume of earthwork (cut and fill) was reduced from 69.1 to 41.91 m³ and in laser levelling, it was reduced from 74.51 to 7.55 m³. The reduction in volume of earthwork was 39.35% and 89.83% in traditional and laser levelling methods, respectively. The field capacity of the levelling operations for paddy cultivation was 0.071 ha h⁻¹ and 0.081 ha h⁻¹ in case of in laser levelling and traditional levelling, respectively. The cost of levelling for paddy cultivation was 11138 ha ⁻¹ in laser levelling and 7491 ha⁻¹ for traditional levelling. 30.31% higher cost/ha in case of laser levelling was due to more volume of earthwork turned out during levelling