0896 Weeders for Use with SRI- Alternative Designs to Save Labor Time and Energy
•Download as PPT, PDF•
5 likes•11,313 views
SRI recommends planting rice in a square pattern to allow for mechanical weeders to be used in perpendicular directions. Mechanical weeders like rotary hoes and cono-weeders aerate the soil while turning weeds back into the soil to decompose. An engineer in Madagascar designed an adjustable two-row weeder based on drawings from IRRI. A new weeder design developed in Sri Lanka greatly reduces weeding time from 5-10 days per acre to 1-2 days per acre. This weeder has teeth similar to cono-weeders that do not get clogged like other hand weeders.
![For Easier Weeding…. ,[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (20)
Similar to 0896 Weeders for Use with SRI- Alternative Designs to Save Labor Time and Energy
Similar to 0896 Weeders for Use with SRI- Alternative Designs to Save Labor Time and Energy (13)
More from SRI-Rice, Dept. of Global Development, CALS, Cornell University
More from SRI-Rice, Dept. of Global Development, CALS, Cornell University (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
0896 Weeders for Use with SRI- Alternative Designs to Save Labor Time and Energy
- 1. Weeders for Use with SRI Alternative Designs to Save Labor Time and Energy
- 3. The “Rotating Hoe” In Sri Lanka, this tool is called the “Japanese weeder.” In China, it is called the “wolf-fang weeder.”
- 5. Simple Cono-Weeder This tool has hollow ‘cones’ with ‘ tooth-bars’ that churn the soil and weeds. It moves more easily over the surface of the soil.
- 6. Double Cono-Weeder An engineer in Madagascar took IRRI’s drawings and made an adjustable two-row weeder.
- 10. Rotary weeder used in India
- 11. Weeder being demonstrated in Cuba
- 13. Weeder being used in SRI demonstrations in Senegal
- 14. Four-Row Weeder Gopal Swaminathan in Kadiramangalam, Tamil Nadu, India, has designed and built a four-row weeder. It does not require more upper-body strength than a woman can provide.
- 15. Motorized Weeder Ariyatne Subasinghe, from Hingurakgoda, Sri Lanka, has designed and built a motorized weeder that enables him to weed/aerate 2 ha in one day.
- 16. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University demonstration of SRI weeding
- 17. Using cono weeder in Tamil Nadu
- 19. Simplest Weeder Design – Association Tefy Saina, Madagascar No moving parts -- two-person operation -- considered to be very thorough and quick
- 20. Cambodian weeder design costing > $3 to build
- 21. Simplest weeder -- made by farmer in Morang District, Nepal; costs only 25 cents 1 laborer can weed 1 are in the time that 2-3 laborers require for manual weeding
- 22. Positive thinking about Weeding in the Philippines – ‘Aerobic Weeding’
- 23. What Next?
Editor's Notes
- A compilation of pictures of different weeder designs from many countries.
- Here we see Madagascar farmers using a weeder ( houe rotative, rotating hoe) on their small rice plots. Although SRI soils are usually kept unflooded, the fields should be inundated before weeding to make the working of the soil easier and more thorough.
- This is a very basic design, light, not expensive, though there is an alternative design, shown below, which is known as a ‘cono-weeder,’ where the working part is a ‘cone’ with ridges instead of an axle with ‘teeth’ as in this design.
- Close-up of this basic weeder design.
- This is a standard weeder design for a cono-weeder, developed by IRRI in the 1960s. It was introduced in Madagascar at that time, but its use has not been widespread with conventional rice growing. With SRI methods, there is a beneficial effect on crop yield beyond removal of weeds. Soil aeration has more effect on the growth and performance of young, widely spaced seedlings, well supplied with organic matter as well as aerated soil conditions.
- This is an adaptation of the cono-weeder that has adjustable spacing. It can be set for 20x20 cm planting or for wider spacing up to 40x40 cm. It is fairly heavy, unfortunately, but by doing two rows at a time, rather than just one, farmers may find the greater difficulty of each pass to be ultimately labor-saving.
- There will be no ‘one-best’ weeder design because soil and other conditions vary. But this model has been very popular in Sri Lanka and was received with enthusiasm by Madagascar farmers, because it is more light-weight and does not get clogged with weeds.
- Close-up of Premaratna’s weeder design.
- Picture provided by Peter Hobbs (Cornell, formerly CIMMYT) taken during visit in Northern India.
- This picture is provided by Dr. Rena Perez, food security advisor to the Ministry of Sugar, who has been the volunteer national coordinator for SRI introduction in Cuba.
- Picture provided by Dr. Rena Perez.
- Picture provided by Shuichi Sato, team leader for Nippon Koei consulting team in Eastern Indonesia, showing Senegalese counterpart in JICA-funded National Rice Improvement Project, advised by Nippon Koei consulting team.
- Gopal Swaminathan has been making a number of innovations to expand SRI concepts to different growing conditions and to other crops. This is his labor-saving innovation for weeding.
- The estimated cost of this was $750, but it could be built more cheaply with large-scale production and with the Chinese motor used being purchased at wholesale rather than retail prices.
- This is a close-up of the TNAU cono-weeder.
- This was intended to be the cheapest possible weeder that could both remove weeds and aerate the topsoil. One person pulls it while a second person guides it. This would seem to be more labor-intense, but because this can be used effectively twice as fast as the standard one-person weeder, it does not require more labor per hectare. This will not necessarily be a final design, or useful for every farmer. Where labor is more expensive, probably other designs will be more economical. But this does give a good option where farmers have little capital and more labor.
- This was built by Nong Sovann from Kandol village in Kampoth Spreu province, Cambodia, hammering bent nails into a wooden axle that is mounted in an iron-rod frame, with a ‘rake’ mounted on the back to maximize soil aeration. This is Sovann’s second design, an improvement over his model last year, and he says that he will improve (strengthen) the handle in next year’s design. He says that this weeder added $20 worth of yield to his small field, at a cost of $3 for materials and $0.75 for the labor required. He was able to do only one weeding because of lack of rain which would soften the soil enough to do more weeding. But even this one weeding Sovann said enhanced his crop yield very cost-effectively.
- This slide is from a powerpoint prepared by Rogelio Lazaro, consultant with the National Irrigation Administration in the Philippines. Taking a ‘positive’ view of weeding here, SRI weeding is presented as good for people’s health -- by promoting aerobic exercise. It is of course also good for the health of the plant.
- Picture of a weeder used in the Nepali terai, provided by Rajendra Uprety, District Agricultural Development Office, Morang District, Nepal.