Development and Performance Evaluation of Tractor Mounted Inter Row Shielded Herbicide Sprayer for Wide Row Crops

Abstract

Tractor operated boom sprayer are commonly used for higher coverage and speedy operation. But use of these boom sprayers leads to common problem known as spray drift . Herbicides when applied in standing crop, causes poor penetration to the target weeds and results into loss of herbicides and inefficient weed control. For efficient weed control sprayer must able to spray herbicides at root zone and lower ground heights. The mechanical devices, such as protective shields which cover the sprayer boom or individual nozzles, have advantage to reduce the amount of spray being displaced during windy conditions. A tractor mounted inter row shielded herbicide sprayer was developed at M/s. American Spring and Pressing Works Private Limited (ASPEE), Mumbai. Different components of the sprayer were main frame, chemical tank, pump, filter, boom, shield mounting assembly, shield, nozzles, power transmitting unit, control panel and spray delivery hoses. The performance of the developed sprayer was evaluated in the laboratory to study the effect of independent variables on selected dependent variables. The independent variables selected were spraying pressure (138, 276 and 414 kPa), wind velocities (1.5, 1.75 and 2.0 m/s) and forward speeds (2.5, 3 and 3.5 km/h) for no shield, shield 1 and shield 2 conditions. The dependent variables were droplet size (VMD), droplet density (DD) and uniformity coefficient (UC). The statistical analysis of data was done and best parameters in the laboratory evaluation were used in the field to evaluate machine and crop parameters. Contd..... newline