Development of an orchard weeder cum mini tiller

Abstract

Number of fruit orchards have been increased over the years and also being increasing with a reasonable pace in Bangladesh. But the orchard owners are facing problems in tilling and weeding their lands. Thus, the farmers are, now, searching for suitable power weeder cum mini tillers for both tilling and weeding operations, specifically, for a machine that can be used safely for weeding and cultivating vegetables and spices in orchard lands. Therefore, this research was undertaken to develop a power weeder suitable for both orchard and kitchen yards. On a previous BARI developed weeder, improvement was done by redesigning it during 2020-22. Then the weeder was fabricated with locally available materials and spare parts. The power weeder was operated with a 4.0 hp diesel engine and the weight of the weeder was 140 kg. The effective field capacities of the improved weeder in the orchard and in the kitchen garden as mini tiller were 0.068 and 0.075 ha/h and the field efficiencies were 73.71 and 77.84%, respectively. The operating cost of the orchard weeder cum mini tiller was 1700 Tk/ha. Net profit from the orchard weeder cum mini tiller was 150000 Tk/year. The BCR of the machine was 1.64 and the payback period was 0.33 year. The weeding index in the kitchen garden and in the orchard were 0.88 and 0.80, respectively. The orchard weeder cum mini tiller can be used in high density orchard since the designed width was less than that of the power tiller. Thus, the orchard weeder cum mini tiller could be recommended for the orchard farmers.

Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 50(3): 231-246, September 2025