Development of Passive-Passive Combination Tillage Implements Suitable for Mini-Tractor

Abstract

Indian agriculture account for nearly 14.2% of the gross domestic product and involves over 58.2% of population. The biggest challenge before the agriculture sector of India is to meet the growing demands of food for its increasing population from 1.21 billion in the year 2011 to 1.6 billion by the year 2050. Since the cultivated area has remained nearly constant (142 Mha) over the years, the only option to increase food production is to increase the productivity of land. The developed combination tillage implement comprises of two passive tillage implement one as front passive tillage implements and other as second passive tillage implement. In case of passive implements, power losses are more at tire-soil interface and also a considerable weight is required on drive wheels of tractor to provide necessary traction that results into detrimental soil compaction. The developed tillage implements were evaluated under actual field condition at different depth and operating speeds. The tillage performance parameters such as draft force, fuel consumption, wheel slip, power requirement was measured. A digital dynamometer was used for measurement of draft force of the tillage implement at different operating depths under field evaluation. The draw bar power requirement of the combination tillage implement was calculated. During field evaluation it was observed that the draft force of the cultivator with disc harrow (C-DH) found to vary from 190 to 220 kgf. The power requirement of combination tillage implement was observed as, 5.32, 9.866, 18.48 and 2.42, 6.3, 3, 7.7 and 0.46, 1.7, 3.5 kW at forward speed of 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 km h-1, respectively.