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Minimum-tillage, Mechanized Sowing of Pulses with Two-wheel Tractors

M. Enamul Haque
CIMMYT-Bangladesh, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Joybedpur, Gazipur, Bangladesh,

R. Jeff Esdaile
School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150,

Enamul Kabir
School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150,

Wendy Vance
School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150,

Richard W. Bell
School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150,

A. M. Musa
People’s Resource Oriented Voluntary Association (PROVA), 223/2, Uposhahar, Rajshahi-6202, Bangladesh,

A. K. M. Shahidullah
People’s Resource Oriented Voluntary Association (PROVA), 223/2, Uposhahar, Rajshahi-6202, Bangladesh,

Md Nur Nobi Mia
People’s Resource Oriented Voluntary Association (PROVA), 223/2, Uposhahar, Rajshahi-6202, Bangladesh,

M. Maruffuzaman
Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), Jail Road, Rangpur, Bangladesh

Chris Johansen
School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150,

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Pulse crops in Bangladesh are mainly low-input rainfed crops with broadcast sowing. Since the 1990s, rotary tillage two-wheel tractors (2WT) have largely replaced animal drafts for crop establishment. However, rotary tillage causes excessive evaporation from seedbeds in rapidly-drying soils. Therefore 2WT-based minimum tillage (MT) options were explored to optimize seedbed moisture for lentil and chickpea establishment. Two types of 2WT-mounted seeding units were manufactured, a strip-tiller retaining rotary blades only in front of the tynes and a tyne seeder in which the rotary tiller shaft is removed. In some soil types, seedling emergence and grain yields of lentil and chickpea with these seeders matched those with broadcasting. In wet soils, the minimal soil disturbance with MT resulted in anaerobic conditions around seedling roots thereby limiting root growth and nodulation. In clay soils with the rapid surface, drying traction was inadequate for tyne tillage and strip tillage could not adequately penetrate rice paddy hardpans to allow adequate growth of seedling roots. Potential solutions to these limitations are under test so that 2WT-based MT can be adapted for more timely and economic sowing of crops, including pulses, in smallholder plots and to achieve the agronomic benefits of line sowing over broadcast sowing.

Keywords: Bangladesh, Chickpea, Conservation agriculture, Lentil, Strip tillage.

Location: In Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Farm Mechanization

Commodity: Tractor, Pulses

Objectives:

Various further modifications have been made to PTOS-based devices to specifically suit them to the sowing of rainfed pulses, but also to be able to sow other crops in the cropping cycle. This paper describes the preliminary evaluation of these strip tillage and tyne tillage units for lentil and chickpea grown in different soil types of northern Bangladesh.

Methodology:

Details of PTOS modification for either strip-tillage or zero tillage are described by Hossain et al. (2009). Apart from changes to the rotary shaft and drum, other major features included press wheels behind each tyne and a fertilizer box metering and delivering triple superphosphate (TSP) near the seed outlet on each tyne.

Silt loam soils of northern Bangladesh In the extreme north-west of Bangladesh (districts of Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Nilphamari and Panchagarh), the soils are mainly non-calcareous brown floodplain soils (Brammer 1996). The soil surface (0-15 cm) is acid (pH 4-6) and mainly silt loam in texture. Comparison of strip tillage with conventional broadcast sowing of lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus var. BARI masur 4) and chickpea (Cicer arietinum L. var. BARI chola 5) was made by comparing plots sown by broadcasting in a date-of-sowing experiment and by strip tillage in a seed rate experiment. The experiments were adjacent to each other in four dispersed replications around a village and were sown on the same day – 10 Nov 2008 for lentil at Sasla Piala Village, Thaurgaon Sadar and 4 Dec 2008 for chickpea at Bhandardha Village, Baliadangi, Thakurgaon - and the treatments were thus comparable by paired “t” test. Broadcast plot size was 5 x 5 m and plots were cultivated with a rotary power tiller, boric acid and TSP fertilizers and seed were hand broadcast, and the plots then raked to incorporate seed and fertilizer. For strip tillage plots, plot size was 12 rows 40 cm apart and 15 m length. Seed rate in both treatments was 34 kg/ha for lentil and 37.5 kg/ha for chickpea. Seeds were primed overnight prior to sowing with Mo added to the priming water at 1.5 g Na2MoO4.2H2O/L and Rhizobium inoculum at 40 g/L priming water; there was 1 kg seed/L priming water. TSP rate was 100 kg/ha, which was drilled in the case of strip tillage. Boric acid was hand broadcast at 1 kg B/ha at sowing. Crops were grown rainfed, mainly on residual soil moisture from the preceding rainy season. Three days prior to sowing, plots were sprayed with Roundup® at 1.875 L/ha in 375 L water, with follow-up hand weeding of lentil plots at 15-35 days after sowing (DAS) and of chickpea plots at 45-50 DAS. Stemphilium blight of lentil was managed by spraying Rovral-50® wp @ 0.2% at 45 DAS. Chickpea was protected from Botrytis grey mould (BGM, caused by Botrytis cinerea) by spraying Bavistin® at 1 kg/ha at 45-50 DAS and from pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera) by spraying Karate® @ 1 L/ha in 500 L water at 65-70 DAS. At harvest, 5 x 1 m² quadrates were cut from broadcast plots and 15-20 m row length from strip tillage plots and the grain weight was measured after threshing. Chickpea demonstration plots of 1,333 m² were sown in farmers’ fields in Nov-Dec 2008 following the same agronomy as described above. Nine plots were sown by hand in rows after full tillage and 25 plots sown by strip tillage, without any prior tillage, with 40 cm row spacing in both cases.

Hard setting clay soils of the High Barind Tract In the High Barind Tract (HBT) grey terrace soils are predominant (Brammer 1996). These soils are acid to neutral (pH 4.0-6.5) with mostly silty clay surface horizons. There is a clay plough pan layer at 10-12 cm, resulting from repeated rainy season rice cultivation and the soil surface rapidly dries and hardens after harvest of rice in Nov-Dec. A chickpea experiment was conducted at Choygati Village, Godagari Upazilla, Rajshahi District, where the surface soil was of loamy clay texture and had high water retention capacity, in 2007-08 compared sowing with either PTOS, strip-tillage or zero tillage. Four sowing dates (1, 7, 11, 14 Dec 2007) were in main plots and tillage method in sub-plots (9 rows 50 cm apart and 10 m length) in a split-plot design with three replicates. In 2008-09 at Choygati, and at Kantopasha Village, Godagari, where the soil was more typical of the HBT with rapid surface drying, four replicate plots of strip tillage were compared with one broadcast sowing plot with full tillage, in 15 x 3 m plots. Plots were sown on 24 Nov 2008 at Choygati and 22 and 28 Nov 2008 at Kantopasha. Also at Kantopasha in 2008-09, a split-plot trial compared strip tillage with PTOS sowing of chickpea (main plots), with and without mulching with rice straw prior to sowing (sub-plots). Sub-plot size was 6 rows 40 cm apart and 10 m length and sowing date 28 Nov 2008. All HBT trials used BARI chola 5 sown at 45 kg/ha. The same agronomic practices were followed as described for chickpea in northern Bangladesh, except that Mo and Rhizobium was not added to the priming water (surface soil pH>5.5 and native chickpea rhizobia present) and BGM management was unnecessary.

Source of Information: 2010 19th World Congress of Soil Science, Soil Solutions for a Changing World 1 – 6 August 2010, Brisbane, Australia. Published on DVD

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Minimum tillage seeding devices attached to 2WTs have been demonstrated to produce adequate stands of lentil and chickpea, under particular soil conditions in Bangladesh. Strip tillage is preferred as there is insufficient traction with existing 2WTs for the operation of zero tillage on heavier, hard-setting soils. However, narrow and shallow strip tillage is not effective in soils that remain excessively wet or in quick-drying soils with a plough pan layer. Modifications to overcome these problems are feasible, through a deeper and wider strip, deeper seed placement in quick-drying soils and shallower placement in wet soils, and more effective covering of the seed after placement. There is a need to classify soil conditions where strip-tillage will operate satisfactorily, or where modification towards full tillage is required. Strip tillage for sowing of pulses provides the advantages of line sowing, which include better weed and disease management and easier harvesting. Other advantages of strip tillage include less labour, fuel cost and time requirement for one-pass sowing, and the possibility of reducing seed and fertilizer rates due to more optimum placement in furrows. These improvements are now within the reach of resource-poor, smallholder farmers already familiar with 2WT.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings