Integrated plastic mulch laying machine: A viable technology for sustainable agricultural production

A tractor drawn mulch laying machine was developed in order to integrate the operations and fix the anomalies in terms of labour associated with conventional mulch laying operations. The prototype integrates the operations of bed making, drip line laying, mulch laying, mulch covering and punching hole on mulch in one pass. The developed prototype was evaluated at three-levels of forward speed (3.0, 5.0, 7.0 kmh-1 ), two-levels of bed width (76.2, 91.4 cm) and two-levels of dibbling hole spacing (15.2, 20.3 cm). The results of evaluation experiment for the developed machine showed that the draft requirement decreased with the increase in forward speed (3.0 to 7.0 kmh-1 ), bed width (76.2 to 91.4 cm) and dibbling hole spacing (15.2 to 20.3 cm). Field efficiency increased with increase in forward speed, bed width and spacing of dibbling holes. Although at low speed (3.0 kmh-1 ), the actual field capacity and field efficiency decreased about 57% and 5.0%, respectively while draft increased about 36 %, compared to the speed of 7.0 kmh-1 . However, at a speed of 3.0 kmh-1 , the mulch damage, un-covered mulch percentage and missing of dibbling hole decreased about 65%, 64% and 7.0 %, respectively. The standardized value of draft requirement, effective filed capacity and field efficiency were observed as 63.27 kp, 0.40 ha.h-1 and 72.7% while as percentage uncovered mulch, percentage mulch damage and percentage missing number of holes were as 3.1 %, 3.4%, 6.25%, respectively. The man-hour requirement and cost of mulching operation with developed machine reduced about 97 % and 75 % as compared to conventional method of mulch laying. Therefore, the study recommends using the developed machine to install a raised-bed, laying of plastic mulch and drip irrigation pipes on the bed and making dibbling hole for vegetable seedling transplanting at a speed of 3 kmh-1 achieved the better efficiency.