An experiment was established at the research field of Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering (FMPE) Division, BARI during 2018-19 and continued during 2019-20. Strip tillage (ST) and Zero Tillage (ZT) were used as CA practice during rabi season. Strip till followed by manual transplanting (STMT) and unpuddled transplanting by transplanter (UPT) were used as CA practice during T. aman season comparing with conventional tillage (CT) methods. Thus, the following treatments was tested with 03 (three) replications
T1=CT T. Aman-CT Maize
T2=CT Machine transplanted T. Aman-CT Maize
T3=CT T. Aman-ST Maize
T4=CT T. Aman-ZT Maize
T5=STMT T. Aman-ST Maize
T6=STMT T. Aman-ZT Maize
T7=UPT T. Aman-ST Maize
T8=UPT T. Aman-ZT Maize
Residue management:
In this experiment, after aman crop, 250mm of anchored rice residues were retained in the plots. After maize 250 mm residue was retained in the plots where rice with strip till manual transplanted and unpuddle mechanical transplanted and maize with strip and zero tillage were cultivated. Each rice and maize crop was harvested by cutting at 5 cm height from the ground in conventional tillage. All harvested straw was removed and the 5 cm height of anchored residue was incorporated during puddling in rice.
Crop management
During T. amn season BINA Dhan-7 was transplanted on 25-07-2019 and harvested on 15-11-2019. Plot size was 6 x5 sq. m. Standard fertilizer dose (68-10-35-6 kg/ha NPKS), weed management practice and irrigation schedule were followed. All plots were harvested for yield estimation and randomly 1m2 area was harvested for yield contributing characters. Variety of maize was BARI Hybrid maize-9. Date of Sowing was 05-12-2020. Plot size was same as T. aman. Different views of the experimental field are shown in Fig 1. Date of harvesting was 09-05-2020. Standard fertilizer dose (230-48-90-43-10 kg/ha NPKSZn), weed management practice and irrigation schedule were followed. Before selecting the yield estimation area, border effects were avoided. All the ears from the harvest area were collected. The ear cover was removed. When the ears (with grain) of area were thoroughly dried, all of the remaining ears with attached grains from the harvested area were weighted. Then the maize was shard with the help of a maize sharder. All the maize grains were collected and weighed. A representative cob sub-sample of five representative cobs for moisture determination were collected and being weighed. Randomly 1 m2 area was selected from the main plot for crop biomass, plant height, ear length, ear girth, number of grains and 100 grain weight. Each of these areas contained 10 plants. Energy conversion was done with standard energy equivalent as mentioned.
Weed management:
In CA plots, at least two days before planting, 1 kg active ingredient (a. i.) glyphosate ha–1 was applied by mixing in 320–400 L ha–1 of water and 0.15–0.2 kg urea ha–1 with a three-nozzle flat-fan spray boom. A pre-emergence herbicide Pretilachor @ 500 g a. i. in 400 L of water ha-1 was applied 1-3 days after transplanting. If any weeds were still observed, they were removed by uprooting. The soil was not turned over during manual weeding. In CT plots, weeds were generally controlled by pudling and then if any weeds persisted, they were removed by uprooting.
All energy input from spraying of herbicide followed by tillage, planting, weeding, intercultural operation, harvesting, threshing and upto cleaning was calculated along with all energy output with the following equations.
Total energy input
Total energy input, MJ/ha = Ede + Eie (1)
Where,
Ede = Direct energy input, MJ/ha
Eie = Indirect energy input, MJ/ha
Direct energy input, MJ/ha = Eh + Ef (2)
Where,
Eh = Human energy input, MJ/ha
Ef = Fuel energy input, MJ/ha.
Human energy input, MJ/ha = (L x Wdlf x whl x Leqv) / Aa.
L = Number of labor for all activities, person
wdlf = Number of working days for labor, day
whl = Working hour, h/day
?Leqv = Energy equivalent of labour, MJ/h
Aa = Cultivated area, ha
Mechanical energy input, MJ/ha = (MFf x Whmf x Feqv) / Aq
MFf = Fuel consumption of power source machine, L/h
whmf = Working hour for farm machine, h
Feq = Energy equivalent of fuel, MJ/L
Aa = Cultivated area, ha
Indirect energy input, MJ/ha = Es + Em + Efr + Epp + Ei
Es = Seed or biological energy input, MJ/ha
Em = Machinery energy input, MJ/ha
Efr = Fertilizer energy input, MJ/ha
Epp = Plant protection energy input, MJ/ha
Ei = Irrigation energy input, MJ/ha
System rice equivalent yield (SREY) calculation:
Rice equivalent yield (REY) was calculated to compare system performance by converting the yield of non-rice crops into equivalent rice yield on a price basis, using the formula: REY = Yx(Px/Pr), where Yx is the yield of non-rice crops (kg ha-1), Px is the price of non-rice crops (TKkg-1), and Pr is the price of rice (TKkg-1)