Background:
The management of crop residue especially rice residue and sugarcane trash has been very challenging due to their poor feed quality, limited window period prior to seeding of next crop, and labour extensive and expensive operation of residue removal. These constraints led to injudicious practice of crop residue burning especially in north-western India for timely sowing of wheat or other crop, thereby creating a burden on natural resources. Considering crop residue management challenges, a new seeding machine namely Rotary Disc Drill (RDD) has been developed at ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (ICAR-IIWBR), Karnal, for direct seeding of crops under crop residue in no-till conditions:
Technology Details:
Rotary disc drill is a tractor PTO (power take off) operated implement and comprises rotary cutting unit with SoilRazor discs mounted at front and seeding attachment (fluted roller and inclined plate metering mechanism) with double disc furrow openers at rear and works on triple disc way mechanism. The saw-tooth edges on periphery of powered SoilRazor discs with self-sharpening feature are effective in cutting tough and moist crop residue (load up to 10 t ha-1) and simultaneously make narrow slits into soil to facilitate seed and fertilizers placement. There is no dragging type soil working component in the machine which makes it advantageous over existing ones for direct sowing of crop under loose residue without clogging. RDD can be used for direct seeding of crops like wheat, rice, soybean, pea, maize, barley, green gram, and pigeonpea under anchored and loose crop residues (rice residue, maize residue, leguminous residue and sugarcane trash) in a single operation under no-till conditions.