Options for Rice Transplanting in Puddled and Un-puddled Soil

Abstract

Shortage and increased cost of agricultural labor during transplanting period are forcing farmers to look for an alternative of traditional puddling of soil and manual transplanting of rice. Field trials were conducted during Aman season (July-November), 2016 with a view to compare transplanting operation of rice crop in the puddled and un-puddled conditions and a self-propelled four row walk behind type rice transplanter was used. Rice variety, BINA Dhan-49 was used in this study and the age of the seedling was 12 days where the average height of the seedling was 14 cm. Round up herbicides was applied 2 days before planting and irrigation was given 24 hours before planting in the unpuddled plot. Puddled plot was prepared by two passes of rotary tiller and leveling operation by two wheel tractor. The suitability of the two methods was compared in terms of field capacity, fuel consumption, missing and damaged hill percentage, and overall yield. It was found that the effective field capacity and fuel consumption of the rice transplanter in puddled condition were 0.11 ha/hr, and 5.1 lit/ha, respectively, whereas the effective field capacity and fuel consumption in un-puddled condition were 0.2 ha/hr and 4.38 lit/ha, respectively. Weed infestation was found almost same in both the plot. The Missing hill percentage was 1.3% for puddled condition and 3.35% for un-puddled condition. Overall yield of rice in unpuddled plot was found more as 5.74 ton/ha compared to puddled plot 5.42 ton/ha. The machine was found operator & farmer friendly and satisfactory.