Author(s): A. Dange, B. Sahu, D. Salam, and P. Rahangdale

Abstract: Due to climate change and uncertainty in rainfall causes delay in field preparation, sowing, weeding and harvesting results in diseases and pest attack & reduction in yield. Of different field operations, sowing weeding and harvesting together consume major labour force and if these are managed timely and efficiently by the farmers, could earns good profit. To access the performance of machines used in cultivation of rice an experiment was conducted at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kanker. For line sowing in wet condition with an eight row paddy drum seeder, weeding with a weeder and a self-propelled paddy reaper for harvesting of rice was evaluated in the study. Selective mechanization of rice crop helped in line sowing of crop with drum seeder results in 18.40 per cent higher yield also saved costly seeds 57.18 per cent compared to broadcasting manually. The cost of mechanical weeding with Ambika paddy weeder was Rs 1296 ha-1 as compared to hand weeding of Rs 2349 ha-1 and involved saving of 14 man days. Mechanically harvesting can not only reduce the cost by 57.98 per cent but also saved 15 man days compared to manual harvesting respectively. Thus, mechanization in rice cultivation is feasible solution for reducing the cost of sowing, weeding and harvesting of rice crop without any yield reduction.

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