BARI Upland Weeder

Weeds are the main enemy of crops. If weeding is not done properly, crop production decreases and occurs fertilizer loss. In our country, farmers use hoe for weeding. Hoe is used for weeding or cleaning crop fields. Use of hoe requires enough time and labour resulting in increase of production cost. The hand-driven weeding machine has been developed for weeding out the dry lands of those crops sown in lines.

Advantages

• This machine is suitable for dry land weeding
• It can reduce production cost and time
• One man can easily operate this machine
• It can be made in any local engineering workshop
• This machine runs between two rows, therefore weeds are removed with its root

Specifications

• It is a push and pull type manual upland weeder
• It is a shovel and rake type weeder
• It is made of MS pipe, MS rod and MS flat bar
• It is made of 12.5 mm mild steel of which main frame is placed on a metal wheel
• An operator can operate it easily in one row
• Number of row: one
• Dimension: 1500 mm × 370 mm × 260 mm
• Weight: 3.5 kg
• Price: Tk.1000 (US$ 12.5)

   Working Principle

For using the machine, minimum row to row distance should be 20 cm. The handle has to be set straight to the waist of the operator. Shovel or rake has to be used according to necessity of weeding out. Now the machine has to be driven at a speed of 1.5 km per hour by pushing forward and pulling behind. It has to be noticed so that the machine is driven keeping 2-3 centimeters distance from the plant and the root of the plant is not cut. If some grasses remain even after operation the machine, then those have to be weeded out by hand or by hoe.

Field performance

Crops:  upland crops planted in row such as-jute, oil seeds, wheat, maize, pulses, onion, vegetables etc.

Capacity: 0 .02 ha/h (5 decimal/h)

Field efficiency:85%

Number of operator required: one

Weeding cost: Tk. 1900/ha by weeder,  4500 Tk/ha by manually