Use of effideat weeding tools to reduce farmers' drudgery

摘要

Weeding, the most important farm operation in agriculture is a costliest and tedious job. It has been estimated that on an average, the weed control costs around 6,000/ha in kharif crops and around 4,000/ha for rabi crops, which comes to the tune of33% and 22%, respectively of the total cost of cultivation. Further, weeding alone accounts for about 25 percent of the total labour requirement (between 900 and 1,200 man-hr/ha) during a cultivation season. Weeding and hoeing is generally done 2-3 times, based on the crops requirement. Crop-weed competition in the early stage of growth and failure to control weeds in the first three weeks after seeding, reduce the yield by 50%. Hence, efficient and effective methods of weed control are the needed to ensure higher crop productivity and reduced human drudgery. Large majority of the farmers follow manual and inefficient mechanical methods to manage the weeds, which are labour intensive, non-friendly to operator and are often inefficient.