Although deep placement of urea super granule (USG) reduces the losses of urea and increases yield, it was not being practiced broadly in Bangladesh due to lack of an appropriate applicator. Therefore, a four row pull type manually operated USG applicator was designed and developed at the department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. The width of the applicator was 1.6 m. The lowest values of missing (0.86%) , over falling (0.90%) and breaking (0.6%) of U
Alam, M.; Kundu, A.; Haque, M. A.; Huda, M. S.
Ama-Agricultural Mechanization in Asia Africa and Latin America 48(4): 82-87
2017
ISSN/ISBN: 0084-5841
Accession: 070842569
Although deep placement of urea super granule (USG) reduces the losses of urea and increases yield, it was not being practiced broadly in Bangladesh due to lack of an appropriate applicator. Therefore, a four row pull type manually operated USG applicator was designed and developed at the department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. The width of the applicator was 1.6 m. The lowest values of missing (0.86%), over falling (0.90%) and breaking (0.6%) of USG were found in the speed range of 2.05 to 2.21 km/h in a laboratory experiment. Therefore, the recommended operating speed of the applicator was 2 to 2.2 km/h. The effective field capacity and field efficiency of the applicator at a forward speed of 2.06 km/h were 0.26, ha/h and 78%, respectively. The average spacing between USG in a row was found to be 39.89 cm which was desired. The cost of the applicator was US$ 78 and the operating cost of the applicator was US$ 22 per hectare. The machine was easy to pull because the maximum draft and drawbar power were only 0.105 kN and 0.06 kW, respectively in puddle field. Moreover, the weight of the whole applicator was only 12 kg which made it easy to carry. The break-even point of the applicator when compared with manual application of USG justified the ownership of this machine for an area of only 0.63 ha/yr of rice land. The overall performance of the applicator was found better than that of the available USG applicators in Bangladesh. Therefore, the developed applicator might be introduced in the Bangladesh to apply USG in rice field.