Agricultural Engineering Today

Mechanization of Cultivation

R K Naik (LM-10471) and P G Karmakar ICAR-Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, Kolkata-700120 E-mail: [email protected] Manuscript received: December 4, 2015 Revised manuscript accepted: April 8, 2016

ABSTRACT Jute and mesta are very important natural fibres next to . and are two major jute producing countries accounting to 80% of export to outside world. Jute is mainly cultivated by small and marginal farmers of Eastern and North Eastern states like West , Assam, Bihar, Odisha, Tripura, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya. About 4 million people are involved in jute production system starting from jute cultivation to industry. The most energy and cost consuming operations in jute cultivation are weeding & thinning and fibre extraction. These operations are carried out almost manually and by farm women. Due to increase in cost of agricultural inputs and labour, jute cultivation becomes a non-profit enterprise and traditional jute farmers slowly diverting to other profitable crops. In this situation mechanization of jute cultivation can play an important role in reducing production cost and drudgery while increasing jute fibre production. To reduce drudgery and to improve the work output of jute farmers, equipment/ machines i.e. manual jute seeder, improved weeder, nail weeder, manual jute fibre extractor, power operated fibre extractor, have been designed and developed and discussed in the paper. Key words: Extractor, fibre, Jute, retting, ribbon.

INTRODUCTION which are women, are engaged in these activities. Jute (Corchoruscapsularies and Corchorusolitorius), The jute economy impacts on social and economic kenaf (Hibiscus canabinus) and roselle/ mesta development and plays a vital role in reducing (Hibiscus sabdariffa) constitute very important poverty and hunger. With its significant coverage, it natural fibres next to cotton. In trade and industry, plays a predominant role in the country’s economy both the crops are known as raw jute. India and by generating employment, earning foreign Bangladesh are two major jute producing countries exchange, solving many of the socio-economic accounting about 80 per cent of export to outside problems, etc. Being an annually renewable source world. It is grown in 0.8 million ha area by around 4 of raw material and biodegradable, it is considered million small and marginal farmers in Eastern and as an environment friendly crop. Northern states of India as a rain-fed crop followed In the past decade due to availability of abundant by rice and share to the tune of about 0.6 per cent to skilled labourers, use of improved machinery for jute the total cropped area in the country. Jute cultivation cultivation has not been given importance in jute is a matter of culture to the small and marginal growing areas. Now, jute as commodity is facing farmers of major jute growing states of the Indian competition on two fronts i.e. from synthetics at sub-continent. The climate and soil of the area are the consumer’s end and from remunerative crops especially suitable for jute cultivation. Even though at the grower’s end. There is continuous increase the cultivation process of jute runs for four months of in cost of agricultural production due to increase a year, jute related activities such as transportation, in the cost of agricultural inputs and labour for trading, industrial processing and production of different operations. Hence, jute cultivation becomes diversified jute goods continue round the year. Tens a non-profit enterprise and traditional jute farmers and thousands of people, considerable portion of slowly diverting to other profitable crops. In this

44 Vol. 40(2), 2016 situation mechanization of jute cultivation can play Bhopal has developed a jute ribbonerto simplify the an important role in reducing production cost and fibre extraction process. drudgery while increasing jute fibre production. In Sowing of jute is the most important the following sections traditional equipment used Seed drill: farm operation for getting healthy and dieses less by the farmers, useful equipment/ machines for jute crop for higher fibre production. Traditionally farmers cultivation are discussed. follow broadcast method of sowing to utilize the EQUIPMENT AND MACHINE FOR JUTE limited soil moisture availability after summer rainfall. CULTIVATION Although broadcast method requires only 2 per cent of cost of cultivation, it involves more human labour The cultivation of jute involves five major operations for weeding and thinning operation because jute viz. sowing, weeding & thinning, plant protection seedlings are sensitive to weeds, which occur in operation, crop harvesting and fibre extraction. high intensity in jute field. Besides, seed requirement The energy and cost analysis of jute cultivation is about 7-8 kg/ha to maintain the optimum plant showed that about one third of the total requirement population in the field. Later on, excess 75-80 (for cultivation of jute crop) is consumed by the per cent of the emergent seedlings are removed operations like weeding & thinning and fiber during field operation of weeding and thinning to extraction. As these operations are performed maintain optimum plant population of 5-6 lakh/ha. In almost manually, mostly by farm women and broadcast sowing about 15 per cent of total energy of consumes about 37-41 and 19-21 per cent of total 10,904 MJ/ha and about 30 per cent of total cost of human energy input, respectively. production is consumed in the weeding and thinning To collect information on energy and equipment operation (Borkar and das, 2006). used for jute cultivation, a survey was conducted In the past, manually pushed single-row and four- on 125 farmers belonging to two major jute growing row seed drills were developed at ICAR-CRIJAF districts of i.e. North 24 Parganas and for line sowing of jute crop (Kundu et al., 1959; Hoogly (Shambhu and Nayak, 2015). Based on the Mandal, 1991). Both seed drills have the mechanism study, it was found that about 87 per cent of marginal for furrow opening, seed metering, covering and farmers and about 13 per cent of small farmers pressing with the soil. The working performance of having less than 2 ha of land were engaged in jute both the seed drills was satisfactory but could not cultivation and were economically poor. Their poor make widely popular due to their low capacity i.e. economic condition was reported to be major hurdle about 50 and 15 hours ha–1 for single-row and four- in mechanization. It was also observed that jute row, respectively. Considering the limitations of the was mainly sown by traditional method of sowing; earlier developed seed drills, a manually operated only about 5 per cent of total area was sown in line. multi-row (4-rows) seeder has been developed at Jute farmers use locally made tools for weeding and ICAR-CRIJAF to sow jute seed in line (Fig. 1). Line harvesting operations. The fibre extraction is carried sowing (spacing- row to row 25 cm, plant to plant out through conventional retting method. 5-7 cm) by the machine of capacity 0.2 ha/h is more To mechanize the jute cultivation some research economical and profitable, as the seed requirement efforts have been made at ICAR-Central Research reduces by more than 50 per cent i.e.3-4 kg/ha, Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, besides ensures uniform germination and proper Kolkata and other research organizations. ICAR- crop stand and also facilitates other post-sowing Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres operations. Due to evenly plant population, uniform (CRIJAF), Barrackpore, Kolkata has developed distribution of soil moisture, plant nutrients and multi-row manual jute seed drill for line sowing solar energy in line sown jute, the overall fibre yield of jute, improved wheel hoe and nail weeder for increased by about 10-15 per cent with overall weeding in line sown jute crop, bast fibre extractor reduction in cost of cultivation of about Rs. 6000/- and manual jute extractor for extraction ribbon from per ha in comparison to broadcast sowing (Kumar harvested jute plant. ICAR-NIRJAFT, Kolkata has et al., 2015). More than 2000 machines has been developed a power jute ribboner and ICAR-CIAE, supplied to the farmers in the jute growing states

45 Agricultural Engineering Today during last 5 years for line sowing of jute and other Nail weeder developed at ICAR-CRIJAF helps to similar small seeds. weed out young composite weed flora including germinating ones from line sown crop since 3 - 4 days of crop sowing (Fig. 4). It is used at 5 days interval (5-30 days of crop age) in between lines and controlled about 80 - 85 per cent weeds. It required 7-10 labours/ha against 90-160 labourers/ ha (2-3 weeding) in broadcast sowing and there is a saving of about Rs. 15,000/ha in weeding and thinning operation in line sown jute crop. Mechanical intercultural operations in line sown crop reduce labour and cost of weeding and thinning by more than 50 per cent.

Fig.1: Manual 4-row jute seeder

Weeder: Weeding after 30-40 days of sowing is most important operation in jute cultivation. Weeding of jute field by manual labour using traditional weeding tools like khunti, khurpi etc leads to more time and more expenditure (Fig. 2). Manual weeding requires 90-160 labourers/ha and about 30 per cent of total production cost. For delivering economic advantages out of line sowing, high speed mechanical weeding is essential. A manually driven wheel-hoe desirable for small farm situation was designed and developed at ICAR-CRIJAF to remove weeds growing in between the jute rows Fig. 3: Wheel hoe (Fig. 3.). This mechanical weeder is light in weight and has capacity 0.045 ha/h, which was 5 – 10 times more field capacity than a khurpi. Line sowing by four-row seeder followed by wheel hoe operation showed saving of 40-80 labourers/ha as compared to broadcast field (Kumar et al, 2015). CRIJAF

Fig. 4: Nail weeder

Fibre extraction: Jute fibre quality depends to a large extent on the process of retting. Conventional whole plant retting method for fibre extraction is labour intensive and requires large volume of water. Fig. 2: Manual weeding tools Moreover, the trend of dryness of river and ponds/

46 Vol. 40(2), 2016 canals during harvesting period due to climatic plants (5-6 nos.) are fed by the tip end to 10-15 cm change, it is difficult for the farmers to ret jute. Since length in to the machine and after activating ribbon water requirement has been the major constraint for separation unit by pressing foot, the canes are retting (juteand mesta) the concept was evolved to pulled back manually. Green ribbon remains in the ret only ribbon (containing fibre) instead of whole hand of the operator while unbroken stick is ejected plant and thereby, reducing (about 70%) the mass forward. Green ribbon extraction capacity with this of material to be retted in low volume of water. machine is equivalent to about 12-14 kg dry jute Methods were developed to separate bark / ribbons fibre/h (180-200 kg plants/h) whereas, by traditional from the harvested plants first with the machine whole plant retting method manual fibre stripping and then retting of extracted ribbons in water and capacity of a person is about 5 kg dry jute fibre per it was termed mechanical-cum-retting method. hour. The water requirement for ribbon retting and Fibre extraction is carried out in two phases i.e. retting duration was reduced by about 50 per cent first separation from the wood by machine and later as compared to whole plant retting. The quality of from the gummy substances by retting. Machines fibre is improved by eliminating root content in fibre, were developed for the extraction of ribbon of the which is also stronger. harvested plants and also developed technique CRIJAF Bast Fibre Extractor: Power operated for retting ribbon by steeping vertically. The ribbon portable machine was developed at ICAR-CRIJAF, retting involves less volume of water and takes less Barrackpore to extract green ribbon from jute, time to ret than whole plant retting. Details of the mesta, sunnhemp and ramie plants by breaking developed machines are given below. the stick into small pieces (Borkar, U.N. et al., CRIJAF Jute Fibre Extractor: Manually operated 2008) (Fig. 6). The machine works on the principle machine, called ‘CRIJAF Jute Extractor’, has of beating the canes progressively down its length been developed at ICAR-CRIJAF, Barrackpore for and scrapping when the operator pulls out the extraction of ribbon from freshly harvested jute and canes. It involves two directional feeding actions. mesta plants without breaking the sticks considering The machine is powered by 1 hp electric motor, the circumstances where availability of electricity weight about 125 kg and feasible to operate in field or kerosene oil is a constraint and/or, often more condition. It needs two workers for operation, one importantly, the farmers desire to get unbroken for feeding the canes and its ribbon separation in sticks (Borkar, et al., 2008) (Fig. 5). It is light in the machine and the other for helping in relay of the weight (about 50 kg) and feasible to operate in field canes and removing wastes.The machine waste condition by a man/women. Freshly harvested jute (chips of sticks and leaves of the plants) may find

Fig. 5: CRIJAF jute extractor Fig. 6: CRIJAF bast fibre extractor

47 Agricultural Engineering Today use in compost pit and as mixture in cow-dung cake. Utilization of stick chips for resin-bonded hard boards and in paper industry is promising. It performs well with the plants harvested on or before maturity. About 5-6 normal canes can be fed into the machine at a time and can handle 250 to 280 kg whole jute plants in one hour. The machine salvages ribbon from thin plants (basal diameter less than 0.5 cm), which is normally discarded under conventional method. Such thin plants constitute about 15% by weight of total harvested biomass, which is added to the total fibre yield. The capacity of the machine is 18-20 kg, 12-15 kg, 4-6 kg and 6-8 kg dry fibre per hour for jute, mesta, sunnhemp and ramie, respectively. Fig. 8: Jute decorticator NIRJAFT Jute Ribboner: A low cost, light weight and portable power operated ribboner powered by 1 plants (Fig. 8). The machine extracts ribbon with hp electric motor/an engine has been developed at breaking the sticks in to small pieces. It consists of ICAR-NIRJAFT, Kolkata for extraction of ribbon from two feeding fluted rollers and four hammer rollers jute and mesta plants (Fig. 7). The machine works for separating ribbons from stick. The machine on the principle of stripping of green ribbon/ barks can handle 750-1000 kg plants/h but the sorting of from harvested stem/canes without breaking the extracted ribbons is a major problem. inner woody stick. The extracted ribbons delivered through the conveyor belt for easy collection. The ACONCLUSIONS capacity of machine is 260-290 kg/h depending up Several improved equipment and machines have on plant age, plant diameter and skill of operator been developed for mechanization in sowing and (Shambhu, 2015). weeding operations. Development of multi crop seeder will help in intercropping of jute with other crops and the seeder can be utilized for sowing of other crops. Several machines have been developed to mechanize the fibre extraction process by different organizations. But due to high cost, depend on electricity and breaking of sticks popularity of these machines is negligible among jute farmers. To overcome these constraint farmers has to change their priority and mind-set. Adoption of improved technology of jute / mesta fibre extraction is greatly depend on the capacity of the machine. Hence, development of machine of higher capacity per machine-hour will help jute farmers to complete the process of fibre extraction in short time.

REFERENCES Fig. 7: NRIJAFT jute ribboner Borkar U N; Das S K. 2006. An improved mechanical approach to retting of bast fibre crops – CRIJAF Jute Decorticator: Jute decorticator powered by 5 bast fibre extractor. Bulletin No. 7/2006. Central hp electric motor has been developed at ICAR-CIAE, Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Bhopal for extraction of ribbon from jute and mesta Barrackpore.8p.

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Borkar U N; Shambhu V B; Naik R K. 2008. Jute project. No. IJO/AGRI/06/08. International Jute and allied fibre crops: energy analysis and Organization, Bangladesh, . mechanization. Jute and allied fibre updates, Shambhu V B. 2015. An improved extractor for CRIJAF, Barrackpore.pp.- 251-263 (ISBN978-81- ribboning of jute and mesta plant. National Level 901050-4-6). Training on Production and retting technology of Kumar S; Naik R K; Shambhu V B. 2015. Profitable jute/mesta/ramie/sunnhemp including other related production of jute through mechanization. Farmers’ aspects. pp. 52-57. Digest, Vol 48(03):38-39. Shambhu V B; Nayak L K .2015. Energy requirement in Kundu B C; Basak K C; Sarkar P B. 1959. Jute cultivation of jute crop in West Bengal.Proceedings in India-A monograph. Indian Central Jute of All India Seminar on Appropriate technologies Committee, Calcutta, 395p. of farm mechanization for marginal and small Mandal T C. 1991. Report of jute seeder development farmers. pp. 70-76.

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