Appropriate farm mechanization for enhancing employment generation in Manipur : A holistic approach
- Part 1 -
Yumnam Jakender, RK Tiwari, SK Chauhan *
The North-eastern region lying between 21.5o N - 29.5o N latitudes and 85.5o E - 97.3o E longitudes comprises
of eight states - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. It produces only
1.5 % of country's food grain production and continues to be a net importer of food grains even for its own consumption
Manipur lies between 23.80 N to 25.70 N latitude and 93.50 E to 94.80 E longitude.
The hill region comprises of five districts viz.
Senapati, Tamenglong, Churachandpur, Chandel and Ukhrul and the valley region consists of four districts, viz. Imphal East, Imphal West,
Thoubal and Bishnupur. The hill districts occupy about 90 percent (20089 sq km) of the total area of the State and the valley occupies only about
tenth (2238 sq km) of the total area of the State.
The unit operation-wise reduction in cost of operation could
be achieved by use of light
weight and reduced size
matching improved equipment
for production of major
crops in plains and hilly region
of Manipur.
The
timeliness of operations, reduction
in labour, time, and
inputs can result in overall
reduction in cost of production
up to 30% for rice,
maize, mustard, black gram,
potato and other horticultural
crops. The package of improved
equipment to be
included are power operated
rotary tiller, power tiller operated
inclined plate planter,
manual knapsack sprayer,
power tiller operated orchard
with turbo nozzles, manual 4
row rice transplanter, manual
4 row rice seeder, manual
cono weeder, manual wheel
hoe, power tiller operated
potato planter, power tiller
operated potato digger , selfpropelled
vertical conveyor
reaper, power tiller operated
post hole digger, improved
sickle and tubular maize
sheller, motorized wire-loop
paddy thresher.
The package
cost of Rs 5 lakh including
power tiller is able to command
7.5 ha per annum
which can be recovered in
five years period with the
annual use of total 500 h in
the region. The safety aspects
on all improved machinery
use need to be taken care of
and sensitization programme
for creating awareness in this
regard is regular process especially
while using rotary
tiller, harvester and small
power thresher.
Few suitable
proven designs developed at
other places have good potential
for promotion in
Manipur in participatory
mode through frontline demonstrations
ar mentioned
below:
Manually operated tools - an equipment
Rotary dibbler:
The rotary
dibbler is a manually
operated push type device for
dibbling of medium and bold
size seeds. It consists of a
rotating dibbling head with
penetrating jaws, covering cum-
transport wheel, seed
hopper with cell type wooden
roller and a handle.
It is suitable
for dibbling of maize,
soybean, sorghum, pigeon
pea and bengal gram crops in
well prepared seed bed. This
implement costs Rs 2300 and
its cost of operation is Rs
280/ha. It covers 0.6 to 1.0
ha/day and labour requirement
is 27 man-h/ha.
Seed drill for sowing on hill slope:
A seed drill suitable
for sowing on hill slope
with steep gradient was developed
by NEH centre. The
part of its weight is transferred
to his neck, giving
more stability while moving
on steep slopes. A seed hopper
(2 kg capacity) is
provided.
Chain and sprockets
mechanism is provided for
flutted roller type metering
mechanism. A right hand
operated hand crank is provided
to assist in pushing the
seed drill while going up the
slope. The implement is suitable
for upland paddy, pigeon
pea and maize crops.
Mustard seed drill: It is
a manually operated implement
suitable for sowing
rapeseed and mustard.
The
implement consists of a seed
box attached to the mainframe
of a hand wheel hoe. It costs
Rs 1,500 and its cost of operation
is Rs 240/ha. The
implement has been accepted
by the farmers especially for
inter row sowing. The implement
can also be used in
terraced fields of hilly areas.
Low land rice seeder:
The seeder consists of a seed
drum, main shaft, ground
wheel, floats, and handle.
Joining smaller ends of
frustum of cones makes the
seed drum.
Nine numbers of
seed metering holes of 10 mm
diameter are provided along
the circumference of the drum
at both the ends for a row-torow
spacing of 200 mm. The
field capacity varied from
0.07 to 0.10 ha/h with labour
requirement of 15-20 man-h/
ha. The traditional method
requires a total of 964-1000
man-h/ha.
6-row rice transplanter:
The rice transplanter is a
manually operated equipment
suitable for transplanting of
mat type rice seedlings in
rows in puddled soils.
It consists
of floats made of marine
plywood, seedling tray for
mat type nursery, a tray indexing
mechanism and
pickers for planting seedlings.
It can cover 0.04-0.05
ha/h and labour requirement
is 40-50 man-h/ha. It costs
Rs 6,000 and cost of operation
is Rs 1250/ha as
compared to Rs 2,000/ha
with manual method.
Wheel hoe:
It is a manually
operated long handled
push-pull type tool widely
used for weeding and
interculture in row crops. The
number of wheel varies from
one to two and the diameter
depends upon the design.
The
frame has got a provision to
accommodate different types
of soil working tools such as
straight blades, reversible
blades, sweeps, V-blade, tine
cultivator, pronged hoe, miniature
furrower, spike harrow
(rake) etc. It costs Rs. 800
and its cost of operation is
Rs 2000/ha. It covers 0.10
ha/day.
Cono weeder:
The cono
weeder is used to remove
weeds between rows of
paddy crop efficiently. The
weeder consists of two rotors,
float, frame and handle.
The float controls working
depth and does not allow
rotor assembly to sink in the
puddle.
The orientation of
rotors creates a back and forth
movement in the top 30 mm
of soil. It is easy to operate
and does not sink in the puddle.
Push pull operation of
cono weeder in between rows
makes weeding effective. It
costs Rs 1900 and field capacity
is 0.18 ha/day.
Naveen Sickle:
It is a
serrated blade sickle suitable
for harvesting wheat, rice and
grasses. The wooden handle
has a bend at the rear for
better grip and to avoid hand
injury during operation.
It
costs Rs. 60 and cost of operation
is Rs. 2000/ha. The
field capacity of sickle is
0.018 ha/h and labour requirement
is 80 man-h/ha.
Tubular maize sheller:
It
is a manual hand operated
sheller suitable for shelling
maize from dehusked cobs.
Shelling is done by holding
the sheller in left hand and
gradually inserting the cob
into the sheller by right hand
with little forward and backward
twist.
Its costs Rs. 60 and cost of operation is Rs. 75/kg. The
capacity of sheller is 15-20 kg/h.
To be continued....
* Yumnam Jakender, RK Tiwari, SK Chauhan wrote this article for The Sangai Express
Y Jakender is the Head, Dept of Agri Engg, College of Agriculture (CAU), Imphal. RK Tiwari is the Ex. Research Engineer, CAEPHT (CAU), Ranipool, Sikkim and SK Chauhan is the Asst Prof, CAEPHT, Ranipool, Sikkim)
This article was posted on September 26 2016.
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