Design and Development of Self-Propelled Power Unit for Cono Weeder

Weeds are the major reason for economic losses in paddy production. Despite advances made in weed control, they continue to cause serious crop losses. Presently in India, majorly weeding in machine transplanted paddy fields was done by manually operated cono weeder which is labor-intensive and time-consuming. The objective of this research was to design and develop a self-propelled unit for manually operated cono weeder. A self-propelled power unit is developed at the workshop of CAE, JNKVV, Jabalpur, with the power by the Honda engine of 1.3 (hp) petrol engines. It is a compact low weight machine, self-propelled with a positive drive system by using a chain and sprocket transmission system. The working width of the developed weeder was 150mm. It was found that the self-propelled power unit with cono weeder has a field capacity of 0.033ha/h with 73.92% weeding efficiency and 89 % field efficiency. Similarly, for manually operated cono weeder has a field capacity of 0.0202 ha/h with 76.68 % weeding efficiency and 86 % field efficiency. Among the two weeders, man-hours are required for a hectare field is 30.35 man-h/ha for a self-propelled unit with a cono weeder as compared with a manually operated cono weeder i.e., 49man-h/ha. The operational cost of weeding was maximum in manually operated cono weeder of 1531.25 Rs/ha as compared with self-propelled unit cono weeder of 1403.43 Rs/ha.