Conservation agriculture and mechanization for smallholder agriculture: A win-win for agriculture and the environment

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Minimum tillage non-puddled transplanting of rice: An overview

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Performance of the Versatile Multi-crop Planter (2010-2017)

In South Asia where cropping intensity is high, small farms may grow three or more crops in a year and over a 5-year cycle due to changing profitability of crops cultivate 4-6 crops with diverse seed sizes, seed rate, row spacing, fertiliser rates, seeding depth etc. Hence a planter for such diverse cropping systems needs to have multi-functional capabilities. Service providers also need to be able to hire out their planter for business all-year-round to justify the investment cost. There are a number of other criteria and challenges that would need to be satisfied by potential purchasers of a planter including low purchase price; sufficient earning capacity; flexible set up in the field with capability to be modified quickly for different seed rate, fertiliser rate, row spacing, seed size, planting depth; durable and reliable in operation, and; light weight with minimal vibrations. The VMP was designed to meet the above criteria and has successfully established a diverse range of crops in Bangladesh since 2008 (Haque et al., 2011)

Effect of tillage and residue retention on maize productivity

In Bangladesh, maize is generally sown after extensive tilth and minimum residue retention. Conservation agriculture (CA) systems reduce the input costs, machinery use, CO2 emissions; and improve soil health (Raper et al., 1994). Crop residues are known to affect soil physical properties (Hulugalle et al., 1986), availability of nutrients (Wade and Sanchez, 1983; Asghar et al., 2006) and soil biological activity (Tian et al., 1993). Crop residue retention has been suggested to improve overall soil fertility and to support sustainable crop production. Crop residue retention under no tillage system reduce soil erosion, increase soil organic matter (SOM), and reduce requirement of labour and fuel under cereal grain and row crop culture (Salinas-Garcia et al., 1997). Kumar and Goh (2000) reported that incorporation of crop residues is essential for sustaining soil productivity through replenishing SOM that not only a key indicator of soil quality, but it also supplies essential nutrients upon mineralization (N, P, and S) and improves soil physical, chemical, and biological properties (Kumar et al., 2001). In our country, the crop residue is used mostly for cattle feed (Saadullah et al., 1991), fuel for stove and some cases burning. It is essential to estimate the amount of crop residue that should be retained in field to get the benefits. Therefore, the present research investigated to find out the minimum tillage with residue retention could be an effective element for maize production

Versatile strip seed drill: A 2-wheel tractor-based option for smallholders to implement conservation agriculture in Asia and Africa

Smallholders in Asia and Africa require low-cost seed drills for minimal soil disturbance while establishing various crops. A seed drill that can be drawn by the widely-available two-wheel tractor (2WT) is an attractive option for mechanization of no-till in small-sized fields. The Versatile Strip Seed Drill (VSSD) was designed with the capacity to make up to 40 mm wide and 60 mm deep strips in untilled land along with seed and basal fertilizer application in a single-pass operation, while powered by the 8.95 to 11.93 kW 2WT. An important innovation of the VSSD was to fit the seed box with both fluted roller-type seed meters for delivery of sufficient small-size seeds to achieve adequate plant density per unit row length; and vertical disk-type seed meters for precision and spaced row planting of larger seeds. Both incessant seed dropping by fluted roller seed meters and spaced planting by vertical disk type seed meters provided optimum plant populations that were generally higher than in conventional, full-tillage plots with the same rate of hand broadcasted seed and fertilizers. Time required for crop establishment by VSSD ranged from 0.13 to 0.18 ha·h−1. When the VSSD was attached to the 2WT for crop establishment, the diesel fuel consumption varied from 4.4 to 6.1 L·ha−1, which was lower than for most 2WT-based planters previously used in Bangladesh. In on-farm multi-locations trials, wheat crops established with the VSSD had statistically similar grain yield compared to conventional tillage; however, significantly higher grain yield was obtained from mustard and lentil, by 14% and 19%, respectively. The VSSD is a unique, minimum-soil-disturbance multi-crop planter, and can be a platform on which to build conservation agriculture systems for small farms in Asia and Africa

Effect of minimum tillage systems on water balance for rice-based rotations in northwest Bangladesh

Controlled traffic and minimum tillage are expected over time to alleviate degraded soil structure, particularly in rice –based cropping soils that experience annual soil puddling and intensive tillage. However, minimum tillage over time may weaken the plough pan and in turn alter water balance in the rice-based systems. This implication of a change of water balance may be detrimental for rice but beneficial for following crops and for groundwater recharge. The aim of the current study is to determine how soil structure changes over time under continuous minimum tillage system and how changes in soil structure, particularly in the plough pan, affects water balance in rice-based cropping system. This paper reports the magnitude of water balance components in different tillage practices for the Boro rice period of the crop sequence

Mechanical weed control by Versatile Multi-Crop Planter in strip-planted wheat

Non-control of weeds will reduce wheat grain yield significantly (Sing et al., 2015). In Bangladesh, farmers use 2-6 tillage passes by 2-wheel tractor (2WT) to control pre-plant weeds and prepare the land to sow the seeds. Minimum soil disturbance is one of the key principles of conservation agriculture (CA). However, minimum soil disturbance planting systems could enhance weed infestation (Sing et al., 2015) if pre-plant weeds are not controlled properly. Although the use of herbicide is increasing quite rapidly in Bangladesh (Hossain, 2015), the use of non-selective herbicide (e.g., glyphosate) to control pre-plant weeds is limited due to higher price of glyphosate and non-availability at farmers' level. The Versatile Multi-crop Planter (VMP) (Haque et al., 2011) performs strip planting of various crop seeds and application of fertilizer in lines, and covering seeds simultaneously in a single pass operation. To manage pre-plant weeds in the field, the rotary shaft of VMP was redesigned with small blades attached between strips to cut the existing weeds while sowing seeds in the field. To evaluate the performance of the VMP for controlling pre-plant weeds in wheat crops, experiments were conducted at Rajbari, Rajshahi, and Thakurgaon districts of Bangladesh during 2015-16

Effects of inundation period and tillage option on field performance of self-propelled rice transplanter

Mechanized transplanting of rice could decrease costs and use of labor in the peak of transplanting periods. Self-propelled rice transplanter requires an ideal field condition as well as optimal inundation of non-puddled soil before transplanting. Hence, self-propelled rice transplanters (four rows walking type, model DP480 except clay loam soil during the Boro season in 2013-2014 where six rows riding type rice transplanter, model S3-680) was evaluated in clay loam, loam and sandy loam soil during the irrigated dry season (Boro) in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. Tillage treatments in a strip plot design were stripped, zero and conventional tillage and irrigation treatments as inundation periods before transplanting as sub-plots were 12, 18 and 24 hours (hrs). Soil penetration resistance decreased with the increased of inundation period in both the seasons and three soil types. Field capacity of both the walking (0.11 to 0.14 ha hr-1) and the riding type rice transplanter (0.21 to 0.22 ha hr-1) had not varied significantly with the tillage options. Averaged of two seasons, strip tillage gave higher field capacity for 12 hrs inundation period in clay loam soil and 18 hrs inundation period in loam and sandy loam soil whereas zero and conventional tillage gave higher for 24, 18 and 24 hrs inundation period and 18, 12 and 18 hrs inundation period in clay loam, loam and sandy loam soil, respectively. The non-puddled strip and zero tillage reduced fuel consumption by 22% to 13% and 8% to 13% for transplanting in clay loam and sandy loam soil compared to conventional tillage, respectively. However, strip tillage reduced the percentage of missing hills (9.7%) compared to zero (13.0%) and conventional tillage (10.7%) while percentage of missing hills, averaged of two seasons and three soil types, decreased 13.7% to 9.2% with the increased of inundation periods 12 to 24 hrs. The highest percentage of picker missing hills was observed in zero tillage irrespective of seasons and soil types. However, zero tillage also gave higher percentage of damage hills compared to conventional and strip tillage. Floating hills decreased with the increased of inundation periods in non-puddled strip and zero tillage. Conventional tillage increased the buried hills significantly in both the seasons. Strip tillage gave higher grain yield compared to zero and conventional tillage in both the seasons except clay loam soil during the Boro season in 2012-13 where zero tillage gave a higher grain yield. However, 18 hrs inundation periods for strip (6.1 t ha-1), 24 hrs for zero (6.0 t ha-1) and conventional (5.9 t ha-1) tillage gave the highest grain yields. Finally, it can be stated that non-puddled minimum tillage (strip and zero) is a resource saving technique while 18 hrs inundation prior to transplant for strip and 24 hrs inundation for zero tillage showed more benefited for rice production