Mechanization of Jute Cultivation
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Agricultural Engineering Today Mechanization of Jute 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 cotton. India and Bangladesh 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 Bengal, 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 West Bengal 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.