Comparative Evaluation of Alternate Ploughing Pattern Designs at Metahara Sugar Estate of Ethiopia

Transcription

1 African Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology Vol. 4 (8), Page , August. 2016, ISSN AJAST Research Paper Comparative Evaluation of Alternate Ploughing Pattern Designs at Metahara Sugar Estate of Ethiopia Zenebe Mengiste Bekele* and Chernet Gosaye Ayanie Sugar Corporation, Research and Training, P.O. Box: 15 Wonji, Ethiopia. *Corresponding author. bzenefikir@gmail.com. Accepted 26 th April, 2016 Mechanized farming for sugarcane plantation has started in the early 1950 s at Wonji and expanded to Methara and Finchaa early 1960 s and late 1990 s respectively. Those practice was adopted by new sugar development projects which dominated by end to centre ploughing pattern. However, these ploughing patterns were complained by soil accumulation at the boundaries than at the centre resulting irregular flow of irrigation water. The objective of the research was to evaluate five ploughing pattern designs on the basis of minimum field travel time, field efficiency and field capacity; and performed by randomized complete block design replicated three times. The soil physical parameter; the machines parameters; and the time parameters; were considered. The designed treatments were; 1.Circular (square) ploughing pattern from boundaries, 2. Square ploughing pattern from back furrows, 3. Headland ploughing pattern from boundaries, 4. Headland ploughing pattern from back furrows and 5. Mixed mode of headland ploughing patterns. The result indicated that; headland plough pattern from back furrows showed 77% field efficiency, mixed mode of plough pattern showed 73.2%; while the conventional plough pattern had field efficiency of 67.6%. Therefore; the field capacity (ha/h) increased by 13% and cost of operation reduced by 13% per hectare. Finally, Headland plough pattern from back furrows was recommended at first choice on its smaller time loss, higher field efficiency and field capacity and overall operational cost reduction and mixed mode of plough pattern was recommended secondly for the application of more machines at one time. Key words: Plough pattern, Field efficiency, field capacity, work rate. INTRODUCTION In Ethiopia, sugarcane plantation has started in the early 1950 s at Wonji plain that lies down stream of Koka dam. Activities like land preparation/ploughing were mechanized and hence different farm tractors had been deployed. Moreover, the expansion of the sugar estate from Wonji to Methara and Finchaa in the early 1960 s and late 1990 s respectively, demanded the increase in power requirements for agricultural activities. Farming operations need some more type of power unit at the farm to operate machineries for: seedbed preparation, water pumping, inter-cultivating, spraying, transporting and so on. These operation demand traction power to pull the implements, rotating power to drive attached equipment, pulley powers to operate stationary machines and automotive power for transport work (Sheruddin et al., 1992). Mechanical plow were used for longer periods in each estates for pulverizing soil in order to make it suitable for cane planting seedbed preparation. Before ploughing, it is vital to keep in mind the benefits to be derived from it such that whole ploughing operation turns to be easy, economic, and time efficient. According to Syed et al. (1999), the use of appropriate plough pattern helps to achieve better

2 Afr. J. Agric. Sci. Technol. 825 field capacity and to minimize the field travel time, reduce the number of non-working turns, avoid excessive dead furrows and back furrows in the field for improving irrigation and drainage and field efficiency. The primary field parameters that influence the ploughing efficiency is the field laid out including shape and leveling off the field uniform width (Syed et al., 1999). Leveling, smoothing and shaping the field surface is as important to the surface system as the design of laterals, manifolds, risers and outlets for sprinkler or trickle irrigation systems. It is a process for ensuring that the depths and discharge variations over the field are relatively uniform and, as a result, that water distributions in the root zone are also uniform. These field operations were required nearly every cropping season, particularly where substantial cultivation following harvest disrupts the field surface. Another point that affects the ploughing efficiency was the pattern of ploughing operation related to size, shapes of the field and the design of plough. It is necessary to identify and use proper ploughing pattern matching the field condition (Syed et al., 1999). Different scholars and researchers were studied various types of ploughing patterns that has better field efficiency based on time, field layout and machinery compatibility such as the headland plough patterns which are best design for ease and uniform till (Rahmatullah et al., 1994, Grisso et al. 2002; Syed et al.,1999). Accordingly headland ploughing patterns are not dependent on implement size and type, crop, machinery and type of irrigation rather it affected by shape of field and leveling (Sheruddin et al., 1992; Syed et al., 1999). The Ethiopian sugar estates such as Wonji/Shoa and Metehara called as old estates among the other sugar industries. Even if, those estates are the major sources of sugar production for satisfying the demand of sugar to the county, they are dominated by end to center ploughing pattern system. However, this ploughing pattern complained by the estates, which they faced in a problem of soil accumulation at the boundaries of the field than at the center of the field, a case for irregular flow of irrigation water and uniformity of pulverization. All of the sugar estates of Ethiopia practice the same type of ploughing pattern because there was no other alternative ploughing pattern practiced in sugar industries. Such that, the ploughing patterns of the old estates required evaluation of the efficiency of the existing one and tested the other alternatives of ploughing patterns design. For that matter, in this study, there would an evaluation of the efficiency of different ploughing pattern designs on the basis of time efficiency and field capacity. The main objective of the research was to evaluate different ploughing pattern designs on minimum field travel time, field efficiency and field capacity at Metahara Sugar Estates of Ethiopia. MATERIALS AND METHODS Description of the study areas The trial was conducted at Metahara Sugar Estate from factory tillage season which is located in Misraq Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, its latitude and longitude is N and E with an elevation of 947 meters above sea level. Metahara has a semi-arid climatic condition with a bimodal rainy nature which accounts for more than 50% of the annual rainfall. The average annual rainfall and the average daily pan evaporation of the area are 539 mm and 5.7 mm/day, respectively. The mean maximum and minimum relative humidity are 83.8 and 35.1%, and the mean annual maximum and minimum temperatures are 32.9 and 17.5 C, respectively. Most soils of the Metahara Sugar Estate of sugarcane fields had high clay content and show shiny ped-faces. Clay soils cover more than 90% of the estate and they are grouped into four distinct textural groups as heavy clay, clay, clay over loamy and loamy soil groups. Soil bulk density is mostly less than 1.3 g/cm 3. High values may be due to either compaction from repeated heavy cultivation and/or clay dispersion due to high exchangeable sodium in the soil (Booker, 2009). Methodology For the implementation of the trial of ploughing operation; New Holland 180 hp tractor machine with five bottom disc plough 71cm disc size implement attachment was used for each plough pattern. The width of cut and depth of cut was 190cm and 30cm respectively and the disc Tilt angle and adjustments before ploughing was done based on plantation operation standard. The tractor speed used for each alternate ploughing pattern designs was 7 km/h and fixed to all treatment activities during turning, ploughing and to cover the headlands, back and dead furrows. The experimental field was 2.5 ha comparatively leveled and rectangular in shape. The total land was sub-divide in five equal places. Again the last plot subdivided in to three sub plots equally. The dimensions of the individual sub fields would measure by using steel tape and demarcated by erecting poles for guidance of tractor during ploughing for making ease turn. The ploughing patterns were performed by randomized complete block design and replicated on three different fields of clay soils of the factory land. For each ploughing pattern design 0.5ha (50m X 100 m) of land was used. Among the ploughing patterns;

3 Zenebe and Chernet 826 the first treatment was conventional which was practiced by the estate and used as control. 90% of the estate fields were clay soils with four fertility rate and all of the test fields were selected from clay soil group of F3 texturally classification (Booker, 2009). During the evaluation of the test the soil bulk density and soil moisture was considered and the samples were taken before ploughing. The other parameters collected during the test were actual ploughing time, machinery turning time, time to finish dead and back furrows, time to till headlands and the number of dead and back furrows. At the end; the total plow time per hectare and total time loss per hectare were tabulated and compared for each ploughing patterns with control. The machine wheel slippage for each ploughing pattern replications were performed and evaluated for each test fields and the average of the three fields of slippage was considered. To do so; A mark was made on the tractor drive wheel with colored tapes and the distance the tractor moves forward at every 10 revolutions under no load and the same revolution with load on same surface was measured for each fields. According to Richard (2014), the travel reduction (%) was calculated by the ratio of distance covered at every 10 revolutions of the tractor drive wheel at no load (m) minus the distance covered at every 10 revolutions of tractor drive wheel with load (m) to distance covered at every 10 revolutions of the tractor drive wheel at no load (m) multiplied by 100. The field data of different parameters was recorded and analyzed and the field efficiency of each plow patterns were computed by using the formula (Mansoor et al., 2011): After the computation of the field efficiency, the effective field capacity was calculated by using Where: - C = Effective field capacity (ha/h), V = Actual speed of ploughing (km/h), W = Actual width of ploughing (m), Ef = Field efficiency of ploughing in decimal. Finally, the cost of lost time evaluated within the ploughing patterns and the operational cost of plough and fuel consumption was calculated based on secondary data of the factory records. At end, all data would analyze with SAS software data analysis package for determining the significant differences among ploughing patterns of 5% probability level of accuracy. The appropriate materials used for the experiments were 180 hp tractor, disk plough; stop watch, steel tape of 100 m length, 3 meter tape scale and ranging pole. 2 1 The 5 designs of plough patterns evaluated and tested in this research as treatments were; 1. Circular (square) ploughing pattern from boundaries (conventional practice of the estate and used as control) (Figure 1). 2. Circular (square) ploughing pattern from back furrows (Figure 2). 3. Headland ploughing pattern from boundaries (Figure 3). 4. Headland ploughing pattern from back furrows (Figure 4). 5. Mixed mode of headland ploughing pattern (Figure 5). RESULT AND DISCUSSION Characteristics of plough pattern design and researcher field observations All ploughing patterns evaluated in this research have their own field character. The circular plough pattern from boundaries of conventional practice of the estate characterized by end to center plough, soil accumulation at end than at the center, formation of dead furrow at the center, time loss during turning, none uniform till and difficult in operators control manageability nature, and compacted nature of plough because turning done on tilled part of the field as shown in Figure 6. Circular (square) plough pattern from back furrows have opposite directional nature from treatment one above. It starts from center of the field and ends to the boundaries and leaves a back furrow at the center and characterized by soil accumulation at the center than at the ends of the field, less in compaction that caused on turning and difficulty on turning across corner for operators. The headland ploughing patterns designed and indicated by treatment 3, 4 and 5 have either horizontal or vertical plough nature based on the shape and direction of the fields (Rahmatullah et al., 1994; Syed et al., 1999). Both had headland at their ends for machinery rotation and turning. The headland plough pattern from boundaries; begins at the end of the field and ends at the center of the field by leaving a dead furrow as shown in Figure 7. It is characterized by ease for machinery management and operator handling, soil accumulate at end than at center, formation of dead furrow, loss time during turning and ploughing the headland and uniform pluverisation. The headland pattern from back furrows of treatment 4 indicated by Figure 8; characterized by center to end poughing method forming back furrow at center of the field which is important for furrow irrigation ridge formation, ease for machinery rotation and turning, manageable and ease for operator handling and control the field, less time loss, ease for ploughing the headland ends and uniform pulverization and continuous motion to cover headland was observed.

4 Afr. J. Agric. Sci. Technol. 827 Figure 1. Square plough pattern from boundary design. Figure 2. Square plough pattern from back furrows design. Figure 3. headland plough pattern from boundary design. Figure 4. Headland plough pattern from back furrow design. Figure 5. Mixed mode of headland plough pattern design. Figure 6.Compaction of tilled field during turning of conventional practice of the estate. Figure 7. Headland plough pattern from boundaries and dead furrow at the center of the field. Figure 8. Back furrow of headland plough patter at the center of the field.

5 Zenebe and Chernet 828 Figure 8. The field efficiency bar chart of different ploughing patterns. Figure 9. Bar chart showing the field capacity of different ploughing patterns. Mixed mode of headland plough pattern design is the combination of headland pattern from boundaries and headland pattern from back furrows. These designs are essential for which, if more machineries were used on one field at a time. It was characterized by more back furrows and dead furrows, uniformity in soil disturbance but requires trained operator for ease control of the field and the machine. Finally, all the five designs were tested in two directions, along the previous furrow direction and perpendicular to the furrow and/or parallel and perpendicular to the Malang direction of irrigation. Machinery and soil parameters The main soil parameters chosen for the evaluation of plough patterns were bulk density and moisture content in percentage; whereas, machine conditions considered during test were wheel slippage in percentage, actual plough speed, width of cut and time elements. The mean average wheel slippage of the three replicated fields was 12, 15 and 9% respectively and their mean was 12% as shown in Table 1. Since wheel slippage has direct effect on the speed of the machine operation; it should tested on the field. According to, Richard (2014), with balanced farm machine moisture of soils suitable for tillage; the wheel slippage should be 10-15%. As indicated in Table 1, the wheel slippage calculated and evaluated was within the Richard (2014) recommended range. The soil bulk density of the estate as recognized by Booker (2009), it should be less than 1.3 g/cm 3 and the soil bulk density test of the fields on each design was in the range of recommended value as indicated in Table 1.

6 Afr. J. Agric. Sci. Technol. 829 Table 1. Mean of soil parameters from the three tested fields with machine parameters. Treatments of ploughing patterns Circular (square) ploughing pattern from boundaries (conventional) Circular (square) ploughing pattern from back furrows Headland ploughing pattern from boundaries Headland ploughing pattern from back furrows Mixed mode of headland ploughing pattern Depth of soil sampling (cm) Mean bulk density (g cm -3 ) Mean % of moisture Mean wheel slippage of three fields (%) Speed of plough (km h -1 ) These indicate that, there was no any influence of machine speed delay due to compaction of soil to plough during the test. The other parameters that affect the plough condition were soil moisture content; the mean average percentage of the three fields was analyzed and there is no large variation in moisture between the treatments and plough character. Time parameters of ploughing patterns As indicated in Table 2, effective plough time, time to finish back and dead furrows, time taken to plough headland, and time lost during turning at ends and corners and minor field adjustments were analyzed and the parameters were significantly different to each other between treatments. The effective plough time was the sum of plotted field plough time, time to plough back and dead furrows, and headland plough time. The total time of ploughing (h ha -1 ) is effective plough time plus total time loss of the field (Table 3). As compared to conventional practice of the estate, the total time to plough the field was reduced by 0.30(h ha -1 ) or 13% and 0.26(h ha -1 ) or 11% between treatment 4 and 2, respectively. Thus; treatment 4, 5 and 2 had a better time efficiency than treatment 1 chronologically and the time loss was decreased by 9, 6 and 4%. Field efficiency is an important factor for determining the field capacity. According to Grisso et al. (2002) and Syed et al. (1999) time efficiency is a percentage reporting the ratio of the time a machine is effectively operating to the total time the machine is committed to the operation. Time when the operator is in the machine and not actually working the field should be counted as lost time as indicated in the Table 3. Table 2. Time parameters of plough patterns processed by ANOVAs. Treatments of ploughing Time to plough the Time of finishing dead Time of finishing back Total time of finishing Effective time to plough Time lost due to turning Total time for ploughing Total time of patterns field furrows furrows headland the field and idling sample fields Ploughing (h ha -1 ) Circular (square) ploughing pattern 5500a 58.33b b 2580b b 2.26b from boundaries (conventional) Circular (square) ploughing pattern 5180b 0 77a c 1954d 7211c 2.00c from back furrows Headland ploughing pattern from boundaries 5220b 56.67b 0 620b a 2708a a 2.39a Headland ploughing pattern from 4785c c 586c cb 1625e c 1.96c back furrows Mixed mode of headland 5080b 130a 67.67b 672a 5950a 2050c 8000b 2.22b ploughing pattern CV Mean

7 Zenebe and Chernet 830 Table 3. Time efficiency and time loss comparison for different ploughing patterns. Treatments of ploughing patterns Effective time to plough the field Time of finishing dead furrows Time of finishing back furrows Total time of finishing headland Time lost due to turning and idling Total time for ploughing sample fields Total time of Ploughing (h/ha) Effective Time efficiency (% ha -1 ) Circular (square) ploughing pattern from boundaries (conventional) Circular (square) ploughing pattern from back furrows Headland ploughing pattern from boundaries Headland ploughing pattern from back furrows Mixed mode of headland ploughing pattern Total time loss (% ha -1 ) Table 4. Comparison of effective field capacity for different ploughing patterns. Treatments of ploughing patterns Actual width of Actual speed of Effective field Effective field Field capacity benefit vs ploughing (m) ploughing (km h -1 ) efficiency (% ha -1 ) capacity (ha h -1 ) conventional (ha h -1 ) Circular (square) ploughing pattern from boundaries (conventional) Circular (square) ploughing pattern from back furrows Headland ploughing pattern from boundaries Headland ploughing pattern from back furrows Mixed mode of headland ploughing pattern Table 5. Loss of operational cost due to loss in time efficiency in terms of fuel consumption. Treatments of ploughing patterns Fuel consumption (l ha -1 ) Unit price of fuel (ETB L -1 ) Total time Loss (% ha -1 ) Loss of fuel due to time loss (ETB ha -1 ) Difference b/n conventional to other patterns (ETB ha -1 ) Field capacity benefit vs conventional (ha h -1 ) Operation cost of ploughing (ETB ha -1 ) Operational cost benefit in (ETB ha -1 ) Circular (square) ploughing pattern from boundaries (conventional) Circular (square) ploughing pattern from back furrows Headland ploughing pattern from boundaries Headland ploughing pattern from back furrows Mixed mode of headland ploughing pattern Field efficiency and field capacity of different plough patterns Total benefit (ETB ha -1 ) To calculate the field capacity of each poughing patterns; actual plow width of cut and ploughing speed was considered and determined by using equation 2 (Mansoor et al., 2011). Effective field efficiency was evaluated in terms of time efficiency to till the plotted field as indicated in Tables 3 and 4. From the field capacity comparison (Table 4), treatment 4, 5 and 2 are more efficient than treatment 1. They have more area coverage and increased by 0.13 (ha h -1 ) or 13% and 0.08 (ha h -1 ) or 8% as compared to conventional practice of treatment 1.

8 Afr. J. Agric. Sci. Technol. 831 Field efficiency and field capacity of different plough patterns To calculate the field capacity of each poughing patterns; actual plow width of cut and ploughing speed was considered and determined by using equation 2 (Mansoor et al., 2011). Effective field efficiency was evaluated in terms of time efficiency to till the plotted field as indicated in Tables 3 and 4. From the field capacity comparison (Table 4), treatment 4, 5 and 2 are more efficient than treatment 1. They have more area coverage and increased by 0.13 (ha h -1 ) or 13% and 0.08 (ha h -1 ) or 8% as compared to conventional practice of treatment 1. Since the field capacity is directly influenced by the variation of width of cut and speed of the machine; as one of them increased the field capacity also increased. From the analysis data it is possible to define the headland plough pattern from back furrows had higher field coverage than the other all tested patterns and the mixed mode of headland pattern and circular (square) plough pattern from back furrows take the second and third place as compares to conventional plough pattern and others indicated by Table 4 and Figure 9. In general headland plough pattern can able to save loss time and increase field capacity by 13% and Mixed mode of headland ploughing pattern could saved 8% field capacity coverage; This mode of plough pattern design was also recommended by Rahmatullah et al. (1994) with its best time efficiency among headland plough patterns. Expected financial cost benefit The cost of time loss and field capacity evaluation was considered to determine the expense regarding to operational costs and each cost is compared with conventional operational and fuel cost of the estate practice. The fuel consumption of New Holland 180hp tractor per hectare was used and on average 14 (l ha -1 ) with current local market price cost of diesel fuel (ETB l -1 ) was assumed and the 2015 physical year of ploughing operational cost of the estate (ETBha -1 ) was considered as indicated in Table 5. The cost analysis comparison in Table 5 indicates; it could possible to save or reduce operational cost of plough by 13% (248.1 ETB ha -1 ) per hectare using headland plough pattern from back furrows and 8% (155.9 ETB ha -1 ) per hectare by using mixed mode of plough pattern and circular (square) plough pattern from back furrows by 6% (118.1ETB ha -1 ) as compared to circular ploughing pattern from boundaries of conventional practice of the estate. Assuming the factory plough 1500 hectare per annum, it is possible to save a land preparation cost from 233, ,150 ETB per year. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION The circular (square) plough pattern from boundaries were the factory practice and used for more than 50 years continuously. Five ploughing pattern designs were comparatively evaluated and tested in this experiment. The result indicated, the headland plough pattern from back furrows had 77% field efficiency and the mixed mode of plough pattern and circular plough pattern from back furrows valued 74.4 and 72.9% field efficiency respectively, while the conventional plough pattern has field efficiency of 68.3%. The field capacity (ha h -1 ) increased by 6-13% per hectare and cost of operation of ploughing reduced by 6-13% per hectare with the application and implementation of circular (square) plough pattern from back furrows, mixed mode of plough pattern and headland plough pattern from back furrows respectively. Finally, Headland plough pattern from back furrows was recommended at first choice on its smaller time loss, higher field efficiency and field capacity and overall operational cost reduction and mixed mode of plough pattern was recommended in the second place for those of two and more machineries were used at one time on the same fields. REFERENCE Booker T (2009). Strategic Plan Towards Cost Leadership. Merti: Ethiopia. Frank MZ, Robert DG (2003). Traction and Tractor Performance. Tractor Design No. 27. SAE Distinguished Lecture Series. Grisso RD, Jasa PJ, Rolofson DE (2002). Analysis of Traffic Patterns and Yield Monitor Data For Field Efficiency Determination. Applied Engineering in Agriculture American Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN Grisso RD, Kocher MF, Jasa PJ, Schroeder MA, Adamchuk VI (2002). Field Efficiency Determination Using Traffic Pattern Indices. Presented at the 2002 ASAE Annual International Meeting as Paper No Mansoor BL, Zahra KP, Gholam RB (2011). 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