Background:
India produces about 30 - 40 million tons of cotton stalks every year. There are various industrial and domestic applications of cotton residues and has future potential to meet rising energy demand. However, the scientific utilization of the enormous potential of the cotton stalk to supplement conventional sources of raw materials needs efficient machinery to pull it from the field and make stalks available in a usable form for its utilization as a by-product. At present cotton stalk pulling is mostly being done manually which is labor-intensive, tedious, and expensive. Commercially available machines cut stalks above the ground while retaining roots under the soil. Being a deep-rooted crop, it is not advisable to retain roots in the soil as it may obstruct further tillage operations. In view of the above, a tractor-operated cotton stalk puller was developed, which can uproot the standing stalk along with roots.:
Technology Details:
The developed machine will reduce the cost of uprooting the left-over cotton stalks in the field after cotton harvesting which is presently done manually. The cotton stalk residues have various industrial applications like power plant fuel, bioenergy, manufacturing of particle board, paper & pulp, hardboard, and corrugated boxes, etc. Therefore, uprooted cotton stalks will give the farmers an extra income by supplying cotton stalks as a raw material to cotton stalks-based industries. The machine will also be used by seed companies, biomass as a fuel or raw material suppliers, and custom hiring centers. Farmers may get an additional income by supplying uprooted cotton biomass as a raw material to biomass-based industries whereas in existing practices cotton biomass is mostly burnt or treated as a waste. There is a cost saving of 10-20% with the use of this machine as compared to conventional practice.