SEED SOWING DEVICES
Among the indegenous implements many seed sowing devices are attached to the implements such as the desi plough. They are commonly called nari plough, tifan, argada and other multi-type elements taht are used in the Deccan. Tubes are fixed to these implements and on the top of these a seedling bowl into which the seed is dropped is fixed. The seedling bowl has a number of holes in it. The constructon of the holes is ingeneous with the result that the seed falls right into the holes and into the tines. In some agriculturally backward areas, broadcasting or scattering the seeds randomly is also followed but the major portion of the land is now sown in lines and the seed is drilled. Sowing in lines ensures the the proper distribution and placing of seeds, resulting in the uniform spacing of the plant with a concomitant reduction in seed rate. It also helps the seed to germinate regularly, ensuring a better standard of the crop and also facilitates interculture with bullock-operated holes thus reducing the cost of cultivation.
Quite a large number of improved seed drills automatic and hand-operated have been designed. Among the hand designed ones, a copy of the wooden tifan has been made in Uttar Pradesh. It is made of mild steel with an arrangement for changing the distance between the tines. Among the automatic seed-drills, the Mc Cormic seed-drill, the Master seed drill, the Gunti seed drill and the Kirloskar seed drill may be mentioned. Most of the manufacturers now try to combine the simultaneous feeding of fertilizer with the dropping of the seed, thus making the implement a seed cum fertilizer drill. So far, none of these combined devices has proved very popular because of high cost, complicated design, greater draft etc.
The seed drills need a lot of skill in operation. It is necessary in case of automatic seed drills to caliberate them before sowing to know the exact seed rate it will drop. The seed drills are to be caliberated for each type of crop seperately because of differences in shape, size and weight of different seeds. Proper care has to be taken in choosing the soil working part such as the tine. If the soil is hard, strong straight tines with sharp edges should be selected. If the soil is soft, the disc shovels may be preferred. Some other factors to be kept in mind are the covering of the seeds, the pressing of soil slightly over the seeds, the transport facilities for the drills etc.
Among the sowing devices mention can also be made of the transplanting machines. Even though streneous efforts are being made in Japan, Italy, USA and China, so far no really useful machine for transplanting paddy has been made except in Japan. Therefore transplanting has to be done by hand. A small tool for transplanting 2 or 3 seedlings of paddy at a time has been developed in Burma and Malaysia. There is a need to introduce this tool in India because with a little practice it can increase the efficiency by 20%.
INTERCULTURAL IMPLEMENTS
Most of the inter culture in India is done with the hand tool called khurpi which consists of a sharp edged triangular or sickle-shaped blade. Sometimes weeding is done with a small spade, hoe or mummuty. Most of these tools have small handles and the user has to sit on his heels or bend his back while weeding.
Weeding is one single operation which can increase crop yields without much additional investment. To increase the efficiency of weeding, long hand lead hoes such as the Singh Hand hoe, the Sharma Hand hoe and the Dutch HAnd hoe have been introduced. The price is Rs.6 and is well within means even for the poor farmer. They can weed 4 or 5 times more than a khurpi. These hand hoes are simple in construction and can be made by the village blacksmith. They are thus strongly recommended.
The wheel hoes are a further improvement upon the hand hoes. A wheel hoe consists of a body, handle and a wheel. To its body many tools like a shovel, a ridger, and other types of tools can be fixed. The price is Rs 60 to 75 with a weeding attachment. Other attachments can be purchased at no extra cost. Being provided with a wheel it is easier to work and very useful for intercultivation in vegetable gardens and orchards. Where the soil is soft it requires only one man to work at this.
For hoeing line sown crops with bullock power a light desi plough is used in northern India. In the area between the Narmada and the Krishna river, multi-tined bullock operated hoes are used. They are known as doura, douri, dundia and dulari. These are the miniature firms of bakhars. When the plants are small multi tined hoes fixed to a single wooden body are also used in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The draft of these hoes is very light and sometimes 4 of them can be pulled by a single bullock. The blades work on each side of a row of plants. In the case of rain fed crops hoeing by using bullocks is done at most 3-4 times after which the plants grow tall and bushy and the soil is also hard. To cope with this stronger and harder blades have been designed. They are commonly known as the Washim hoe, the Akola hoe , the Baroda hoe and the triphali. Their designs are similiar and are very helpful for the interculture of cotton crop grown in rows.
Yet another implement called the Indore ridger was introduced in Malwa some years back. This has a sharp beam with sloping ends and a hexagonal share attached to it with a strong iron bar. The ridger can be used up to a later stage of the crop without doing physical injury to the plants. It not only eradicates weeds but also produces a good mulch. Similiar to the doura 2 or 3 such ridgers can be attached to a pair of bullocks. There is scope to introduce these implements in northern India where they have not yet been introduced so far.
For some special crops like paddy, special types of paddy weeders have been designed. They are based on the Japanese design. They consist of 2 rollers with pointed fingers and are pushed in between the rows of the paddy plants when water is standing in the fields. The idea is to bury the weeds in the mud to decompose them and add organic matter to the soil.
With the advancement of scientific research new methods to control weeds with selective weedicides are being used. When this weedicide is sprayed in betwwen the crops it kils the weeds only and not the crops. At present they are costly but when they become abundant, they will be more effective than other implements. Some of the intercultural implements may have some attachments fixed to them to carry out some special jobs such as sulphur dusting in tobacco cultivation and the top-dressing of fertilizers. Already simple sulphur dusters which can be worked in rows and fertilizer attachments to the weeders have been designed..
