Tractor Operated Plastic Mulch Laying Implement For Vegetable Cultivation As Part Of Climate Smart Technology

For the sustainable production of food and vegetables, the growing environment is crucial in determining the quality and yield of the crops. Mulching have a positive environmental affects such as improved soil parameters, regulate temperature of soil and plant roots, reduce weed growth and enhance nutrients of the crop. Laying of mulch plastic manually is time consuming which involves a lot of labour and also is a very tedious job. A mulch laying implement which is attached to 34hp tractor power source was developed, tested and evaluated to access its performance and efficiency in terms of soil covering, air pockets and plastic injuries at three different speeds of 1km/h, 1.4km/h and 2.02km/h. The result indicated that although the uncovered mulch film rose with increasing speed the mulching efficiency is almost same for all the three calibrated forward speeds and there were no significant difference between the mean of the percent uncovered film statistically. No torn mulch plastic and air pocket was observed except a 3.42% of torn mulch plastic at forward speed of 1km/h which led to a mulching efficiency of 89.54, 89.80 and 89.44% and an effective field capacity of 0. 2.2 acres/day, 2.5 acres/day and 2.7 acres/day at 1, 1.4 and 2.02 km/h forward speeds respectively, considering 7 working hours a day.