Sustainable no–tillage practices with a disc type novel residue cleaning mechanism: Design, development and field evaluation

Crop residue management in no–tillage under conservation agriculture is crucial for maintaining soil health and optimizing crop yields. This study presents a residue cleaning mechanism specially designed for no–tillage sowing to overcome challenges posed by crop residues left by combine harvesters. This research involved design, development and field–evaluation of a residue cleaning unit attached to a seed–cum–fertilizer drill equipped with a broad–spacing toolbar. The initial trials optimized operational parameters in a test soil bin, showing maximum residue removal efficiency at 45° disc angle and 20° tilt angle. Following these trials, a tractor drawn six units of residue cleaning discs, each with 12 teeth and a diameter of 350 mm were fabricated along with an inverted T–type furrow opener. The developed prototype of six-row seed–cum–fertilizer drill with a residue cleaning mechanism (T1) was evaluated for the wheat–green gram–maize cropping system and compared with the ten–row Happy Seeder (T2). The results showed that the improvement in grain yield for green gram (6.05 %) was significantly higher for T1 compared to T2. However, the improvements in grain yield for wheat (4.43 %) and maize (0.86 %) was not statistically significant (p < 0.05), resulting in higher net incomes for T1. For each cropping system, the energy analysis showed that, T1 (27.47 MJ/kg) required slightly less specific energy than T2 (28.34 MJ/kg). However, T1 had slightly higher total carbon emissions (10970.89 kg CO2eq/ha) compared to T2 (10638.17 kg CO2eq/ha). The benefit–cost ratio was lower for T1 (2.08) compared to T2 (2.16), but increasing the number of rows in the T1 treatment could enhance field capacity, potentially reducing carbon emissions and improving economic returns.