A Multifunctional Machine for Weeds Management of Permanent Raised Bed System in Oasis Northwestern China

摘要

Permanent Raised Bed(PRB) systems were tested in the Hexi Corridor of Northwestern China where agriculture production mainly replies on the irrigation with snow melt and the water crisis has urged the improvement of water use efficiency in that area.As a part of the whole package of research program, this paper designed a multifunctional machine to control the weeds which are frequently occurring under Permanent Raised Bed System in the project. This machine featured the combined configurations of chemical sprayer and mechanical cultivator, which were set up on a three-section foldable frame and could be applied individually or collaboratively as to the specific requirement. Three pieces of foldable shields were installed to reduce the drift of thechemicals. Field experiments showed that the chemical and mechanical combined treatment managed a significantly better weed eliminated rate (WER) of 97.3% which was higher than either single spraying treatment or mechanical cultivating treatment. Sincemost of the weeds are perennial in the area and can hardly be eliminated by chemical spraying, and also some annual weeds can not be simply cut off with mechanical cultivator, this sprayer-cultivator-combined weeder could be a way of Integrated Weed Control along the whole growing period of wheat and maize.