Studies on Straw Management Techniques Using Paddy-Straw Chopper Cum Spreader Along With Various Tillage Practices and Subsequent Effect of Various Sowing Techniques on Wheat Yield and Economics

摘要

South-east Asia is the principal niche of rice crop and in this subcontinent rice and wheat occupy nearly 59.16 and 42.55 million ha, respectively and annual grain output is around 181.35 and 109.07 million tonnes, respectively. Rice-wheat system occupies a total of 13.5 million ha in 4 rice-wheat consortium countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal with areas 10.0, 2.2, 0.8 and 0.5 million ha, respectively). Another 10 million ha of rice-wheat area is in China. With the introduction of combine harvesters, more than 75% of the rice area is harvested mechanically in north-western parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). Most farmers remove wheat straw for feeding the animals. However, management of the rice straw is a major challenge as it is considered to be a poor feed for the animals owing to high silica content. Combine harvester leaves behind a swath of loose rice residues, which interfere with operations of the seed drills used for planting wheat. To avoid this problem farmers resort to burning of crop residue, which not only lead to loss of huge biomass but also cause environmental pollution. A study was conducted on different paddy straw management practices to manage paddy crop residue and to reduce its burning, which included various machines being used like Paddy straw chopper cum spreader, Spatial drill, Happy Seeder, Zero till drill, Conventional drill, Roto Seeder. It was found that there was significant increase in yield of wheat after either sowing directly in paddy stubble field or sowing after incorporating paddy straw in the field. Wheat yield increase with chopper and spatial drill varied from 5.0-10.25%, with Happy seeder varied from 2-5%, with chopper and con- ventional drill varied from 14.28-17.80%, with chopper and broadcasting method varied from 4.92-11.27%, varied from 2.18-16.67% for chopper and zero till seed cum fertilizer drill combination. Wheat yield with Roto seeder machine was found to be same or lesser than conventional method. The mean total number of operations involved for straw management and field preparation per hectare for wheat sowing for Spatial drill and Happy seeder were 2 and for Conventional drill, Roto seeder, Broadcasting method and Zero till seed cum fertilizer drill were 6, 3, 6 and 6 respectively. In case of Chopper along with Spatial drill and Happy seeder, there was saving in time, labour and cost of operations involved, for paddy straw management and sowing of wheat. The benefit cost ratio was worked out for all the practices and it was highest and same for Happy seeder and sms combination as well as for chopper and spatial drill combination as 2.73:1. Saving for chopper with spatial drill combination and Happy seeder with SMS combination in Rs. per acre were 24,943.11 and 24,624.19 respectively ( 1 US $ = 68 Indian Rupees). The benefit cost ratio was minimum for Traditional method (partial burning) and broadcasting method as 2.29:1 and 2:30:1 respectively.