OPTIMIZATION OF WEEDING UNIT PERFORMANCE OF MANUALLY OPERATED CONO-WEEDER USING RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

H.B. SHAKYA¹*, NAVNEET KUMAR², M.R. PARMAR³, S.D. PARMAR^4
1Department of Agricultural Engineering, B.A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, 388110, India
²Department Department of Agricultural Processing Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Godhra, India
³Department of Agricultural Engineering, B.A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, 388110, India
⁴Department of Agricultural Engineering, B.A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, 388110, India
* Corresponding Author : shakya@aau.in

Received : 13-07-2016     Accepted : 23-07-2016     Published : 21-10-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 49       Pages : 2107 - 2116
Int J Agr Sci 8.49 (2016):2107-2116

Keywords : Performance, Cono-weeder, Paddy, Weeding, Response surface methodology
Academic Editor : M.V. Dabhi
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : None declared
Author Contribution : None declared

The objective of the study was to optimize weeding unit of manually operated cono-weeder for weeding operation in rice crop using response surface methodology and to verify the optimum levels of the variables. The variables considered in the study consisted of diameter of weeding drum and blade angle. Rice seedlings were manually transplanted at 25 x25 cm plant to plant and row to row distance in the field plot of MRRS, AAU, Nawagam. The experiment was divided into two parts one for serrated bladed weeding units and other for plain bladed weeding units. The experiment design was centre composite design in RSM. The experiment was conducted to assess the effect of weeding drum diameter and blade angle on various parameters like draft, power, effective field capacity, weeding efficiency, plant damage, number of clogging, soil volume disturbed, performance index and cost of operation. Data obtained were then used to develop functions in polynomial form that allowed the calculations of the optimum level of each independent variable considered in the study. The optimum level of weeding drum diameter and blade angle were decided on the basis of considering performance index and cost of operation as main parameters. Overall, the best performance was found to be in the serrated bladed weeding of 100 mm drum diameter and 29.37° blade angle and in plain bladed weeding unit of 100 mm drum diameter and 30.29° blade angle.