Verification and On-farm Evaluation of Tractor Drawn Rigder for potato Hiller

Abstract

Potatoes are hilled between canopy closure and emergence when cultivated commercially and traditionally. The conventional hilling technique used in potato farming is labor-intensive, slow, tedious, inefficient, and requires drudgery, all of which raise output costs. This study’s objective was to modify and evaluate a ridger attachment for forming potato hills, which is pulled by a tractor and adjusted to specific, preset measurements operating speeds and spacing of row.  A frog, tyne, primary frame, moldboard system of hitching, and share make up the manufactured ridger.  With respect to the width of the ridge and the height of the ridge, plants’ damage, power requirement, and draft requirement, field efficiency and capacity, cost of labor and ownership and operation, hillers’ performance was assessed on sandy loam and vertisol soil types.  Three levels of operating speed and two types of soil with three replications comprised the factorial, fully randomized experimental design.  At tractor advance speeds of 2.5, 3, and 3.5 km/h, the implement was assessed. The operating speed of tractor and the type of soil had a significant impact on the ridge’s height and width at p < 0.05.  However, neither ridge height nor width were significantly affected by the combination of soil type and operating speed (P < 0.05).  At a 2.5 km/h speed of operation and 94.54% efficiency of weeding, the mean values for fuel requirement, field efficiency, ideal and actual  field capacity were 2.57 l/h, 91.93%,  0.39 ha/h, and 0.36 ha/h, respectively. Based on the performance evaluation results, it is determined that most farmers can utilize the fabricated potato ridger effectively and affordably.