Effect of different sowing techniques on wheat in rice-wheat cropping system in Samba district, Jammu and Kashmir Sinha Abhay Kumar1,*, Sharma Neerja1, Gupta Saurav1, Mishra Sunil Kumar2 1ICAR – Krishi Vigyan Kendra, SKUAST – Jammu, Samba184121Jammu and Kashmir, India 2Division of Agronomy, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Jammu180009Jammu and Kashmir, India *Email for correspondence: abhaysinha.1995@gmail.com
Online Published on 25 January, 2024. Abstract Super seeder offers the apparent advantage of timely sowing at reduced time, fuel, labour and drastic reduction in tillage intensity, resulting in significant cost savings as well as potential gains in yield through earlier sowing of wheat. The conventional sowing systems require well prepared fields. After the harvest of rice, field is prepared by 3-4 times tillage operations which consume enormous time, labour and energy besides causing delay in sowing with increased cost of cultivation. Super seeder technology is the most economical approach for handling paddy straw without burning it before sowing. In the present study, the performance of super seeder was tested against conventional method of seed sowing. The results showed that there was a saving of 63.55 per cent in sowing time in direct sowing by tractor-drawn super seeder over conventional method. The depth of sowing of seed by super seeder was found to be 5 cm compared to broadcasting method in which seed remained on top surface of the soil. Super seeder required 25.18 per cent less labour as compared to conventional method. Similarly, fuel consumed by the super seeder was 53.82 per cent less over conventional method. Operational cost and production cost was 33.33 and 16.26 per cent less respectively with the use of super seeder and net return was 22.73 per cent more. Use of super seeder resulted in 14.37 per cent more yield. Farmers who had adopted super seeder method in wheat production were interested to continue with this method of sowing in future. Top Keywords Super seeder, Broadcasting, Net return, Economics, Benefit-cost ratio, Yield. Top |