Effect of the Spading Machine on Various Soil Parameters at Different Tillage Depths

Neeraj Kumar Singh (), Baldev Dogra, Gursahib Singh Manes, Dilwar Singh Parihar, Ali Salem () and Ahmed Elbeltagi
Additional contact information
Neeraj Kumar Singh: Krishi Vigyan Kendra—Bahraich-I, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Ayodhya 224229, Uttar Pradesh, India
Baldev Dogra: College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004, Punjab, India
Gursahib Singh Manes: Directorate of Research, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004, Punjab, India
Dilwar Singh Parihar: International Rice Research Institute, Jorhat 785013, Assam, India
Ali Salem: Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Minia 61111, Egypt
Ahmed Elbeltagi: Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 11, 1-12

Abstract: This study was carried out to investigate the effect of the spading machine as a sustainable tillage tool at different depths of tillage on soil parameters. The spading machine was evaluated for two independent parameters: soil type and depth of cut. The observed dependent parameters were the bulk density of soil, mean clod size, soil strength, torque requirement, fuel consumption, and cost of operation. The bulk density varied from 1.18 to 1.39 g/cm 3 , the mean clod size between 12.72 and 68.37 mm, the soil strength between 69 and 4714.5 kPa, the torque requirement between 206 and 344.62 N-m, the fuel consumption between 13.60 and 21.83 l/ha, and cost of operation ranged between 2670.37 INR/ha (34.71 USD/ha) and 3635.87 INR/ha (47.27 USD/ha). It was observed that with the increase in tillage depth, the dependent parameters were also increasing, except the cost of operation varied nonsignificantly. In comparison to the spading machine, other primary tillage tools resulted in higher bulk density and fuel consumption, whereas mean clod size and cost of operation were reported higher except for the rotary tillage tool. Thus, the spading machine could be a sustainable tillage tool for long-term agricultural goals.

Keywords: spading machine; soil compaction; tillage; tillage depth; sustainable tillage tool (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4334/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4334/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4334-:d:1398748

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().