Development and evaluation of weed wiper for resource conservation in hills of north western Himalayas

Abstract

In hills, women are generally involved in weeding operation which is very drudgery oriented and time consuming as it is carried out manually with traditional tools such as kutla, kudal etc. A light weight manual weed wiper (1.85 kg weight and 180 mm roller width) based on the principle of wiping (or brushing) was developed for weed control in between crop rows by using non-selective herbicides i.e. glyphosate (roundup) to the targets (weeds) by direct contact without damaging the crops. The herbicide solution is supplied to an absorbent surface i.e. spongy roller in weed wiper. The weed wiper was calibrated for herbicide dose and volume of water and tested at Vivekananda Hill Agriculture Research Institute (ICAR-VPKAS), Almora in pea and finger millet crops. The capacity of wiper was 0.032–0.035 ha h−1 with weeding efficiency 78–83% after 12–15 days of application of weedicide. It was found that application of glyphosate @ 2.16 litres ha−1 in 432 litres of water and @ 1.98 litres ha−1 in 395 litres of water through weed wiper was sufficient to wipe out the weeds in between the rows of pea and finger millet crop in one hectare area without any injury to crop. The time and labour requirement of weeding with weed wiper was observed to be 76–81% less as compared to kutla. However, after operation of wiper, some time and labour was required for weeding near plants. The cost of weeding with wiper was also observed to be 67–74% less as compared to kutla. Hence, wiper was observed to be very effective in labour, time, drudgery and cost saving for weed control in between crop rows.