Development and evaluation of notched concave disc seed drill for direct seeding of wheat in paddy stubble field

Abstract

Combine harvester leaves behind a swath of loose paddy residues, which interfere with wheat sowing operations in conventional seed drills. To avoid this problem, farmers resort to the burning of paddy residue, which not only leads to the loss of massive biomass but also causes environmental pollution. To enable the sowing of wheat in paddy stubble fields, various kinds of furrow openers were introduced by many researchers. Due to high maintenance and low performance of these furrow openers are not adopted up to the desired level. The main objective of this study is to develop a furrow opener and seed drill that overcomes the problem of existing furrow openers like the uniform seeding operation, least soil disturbance, and better straw handling capacity. The developed seed drill and double disc seed drill (control) were evaluated in a combine harvested field at three levels of forward speed (1.5, 2.1, and 2.8 kmh−1) and height of cut (38, 45, and 52 cm) of straw. The results were evaluated in terms of plant emergence, tillers per meter area, effective tillers per meter area, plant height, pinnacle length, number of grains per ear head, weight of grain per ear head, and wheat yield. The fuel consumption was 12% less than the double-disc seed drill. Whereas, the average yield (4.6 t ha−1) was also higher in notched concave disc seed drill. The Notched concave seed drill offers the means of drilling wheat into paddy stubble without burning, eliminating air pollution and loss of nutrients and organic carbon due to burning, at the same time as maintaining or increasing yield.

Keywords

• Concave disc
• Conservation tillage
• Direct drilling
• Furrow openers
• Paddy straw