Innovative Blade and Tine Push Weeder for Enhancing Weeding Efficiency of Small Farmers

Kalluri Praveen (), Ningaraj Belagalla, Nagaraju Dharavat (), Leander Corrie and Gireesha D
Additional contact information
Kalluri Praveen: Department of Agricultural Engineering, SR University, Warangal 506371, Telangana, India
Ningaraj Belagalla: Department of Entomology, SR University, Warangal 506371, Telangana, India
Nagaraju Dharavat: School of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, SR University, Warangal 506371, Telangana, India
Leander Corrie: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144411, Punjab, India
Gireesha D: Department of Plant Pathology, SR University, Warangal 506371, Telangana, India

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 6, 1-28

Abstract: Sustainable agriculture is central to addressing the difficulties farmers face, such as a lack of manpower, high input prices, and environmental effects from the widespread use of chemical herbicides. In farming, eliminating unwanted plants from crops is a laborious task crucial for enhancing sustainable crop yield. Traditionally, this process is carried out manually globally, utilizing tools such as wheel hoes, sickles, chris, powers, shovels, and hand forks. However, this manual approach is time-consuming, demanding in terms of labor, and imposes significant physiological strain, leading to premature operator fatigue. In response to this challenge, blade and tine-type push weeders were developed to enhance weeding efficiency for smallholder farmers. When blade and tine push weeders are pushed between the rows of crops, the front tine blade of the trolley efficiently uproots the weeds, while the straight blade at the back pushes the uprooted weeds. This dual-action mechanism ensures effective weed elimination by both uprooting and clearing the weeds without disturbing the crops. The blade and tine-type push weeders demonstrated actual and theoretical field capacities of 0.020 ha/h and 0.026 ha/h, achieving a commendable field efficiency of 85%. The weeders exhibited a cutting width ranging from 30 to 50 mm, a cutting depth between 250 and 270 mm, a draft of 1.8 kg, a weeding efficiency of 78%, and a plant damage rate of 2.7%. The cost of weeding was 2108 INR/ha for the green pea crop.

Keywords: blade and tine-type push weeder; field capacities; field efficiency; cutting width; draft; damage rate of plant; sustainable agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/6/2639/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/6/2639/ (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:17:y:2025:i:6:p:2639-:d:1613958

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 ().