Zero-Till Drill for Wheat Establishment and Comparison of Performance with Power Tiller Operated Seeder (PTOS) and Conventional Method

Abstract

A power tiller operated Zero-till drill had been developed in Wheat Research Centre (WRC), Dinajpur, Bangladesh with the assistance of CIMMYT. Performance of the Zero-till drill was evaluated at farmers’ field in Dinajpur area for the establishment of wheat after rice harvesting. Performance of the Zero-till drill was evaluated on the basis of seed rate, seed spacing, and depth of seeding, effective field capacity, fuel consumption, planting cost, yield, net saving and benefit cost ratio. For justification of suitability of Zero-till drill for the establishment of wheat, performance of the Zero-till drill was also compared with power tiller operated seeder (PTOS) and conventional method (broadcasting). Results showed that effective field capacity and fuel consumption rate of the Zero-till drill was 0.12 ha/hr and 1.5 lit/hr, respectively. During seed sowing 30 kg of seed per hectare was saved with Zero-tillage system. Zero-till drill also maintained uniform depth of seeding with better seed-soil contact. It was also observed that the number of effective tiller and effective spike were more in Zero-tillage system than in conventional method and wheat yield under Zero-tillage and PTOS planting methods were 6.5% and 13% higher than that under conventional method. Furthermore, wheat planted with Zero-till drill was less lodged compared to PTOS and conventional method. From economic view point, Zero-till drill was suitable for wheat establishment because it saved planting cost of Tk. 2585/ha which was 66% less expensive than conventional method and the benefit cost ratio (BCR) of the Zero-till drill was 2.0 indicating that Zero-till drill was profitable than PTOS (BCR = 1.88) and conventional method (BCR = 1.31).