A NOTE ON PROSPECTS OF IMPROVED KIND OF CAMEL DRAWN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS - HARROW AND CULTIVATOR

摘要

It is generally assumed that a draft force equivalent to 18% of its body weight can be generated by the camel. This has been extensively exploited for transport purposes through appropriately designed camel carts. This can also be utilised for agricultural operations. Vyas and Verma (2002) were of the view that camel has not been intensively used for agricultural operations because of lack of technical knowledge about utilisation of camel power for this purpose, lack of appropriately designed camel drawn implements and lack of adequate irrigation facilities for cropping throughout the year. Currently, only deshi plough and patella are being operated, which do not exploit full potential of this animal and the speed of operation is also slow. They were of the view that seed drill, harrow, cultivator and similarly improved kind of implements can be successfully drawn by camel, which, not only improve the speed of operation, but could be useful in preserving natural vegetables and local grasses and are eco-friendly too. Several agencies are claiming that these can be successfully operated by camels continuously for many hours.