Shivraj Multipurpose Equipment
About the Practice
The innovator, living in the soyabean and cotton belt of Madhya Pradesh, observed that sowing, intercultural operation, weeding and harvesting were labour intensive agricultural operations. Scarcity of labour and high cost of operations done by mechanical power posed difficulty to small farmers. To address this issue, Parhate developed ?Shivraj? ? the multipurpose agricultural equipment in 2000. Being priced at Rs. 15,000 the machine could not find any takers.
Detail:
The Shivraj Multipurpose Equipment is a multipurpose tool frame drawn by paired bullocks. It is lightweight and can perform up to six agricultural operations. Different accessories can be attached to it for different operations like shallow ploughing, interculturing, weeding, sowing, residue collection, groundnut digging and soyabean harvesting. With modifications, it can also be used for spraying. It consists of a multi-purpose tool frame mounted freely on the central shaft of ground wheel to which accessories can be fitted: for example, the seed drilling attachment can be replaced by a sitting attachment. The field capacity of the equipment is 0.27 hectare/ hour and the cost of this product with attachments for seeding, ploughing and interculturing is around Rs. 12,000. The concept of multipurpose toolbar/frame used for ploughing, harrowing, sowing and intercultural operations for agricultural machineries, is well known4 . IARI, New Delhi, has developed an integral tool bar that can do five operations viz. ploughing, harrowing, bund forming, ridge making and sowing and costs Rs. 3,800/-5. Similarly, Tropicultor developed by ICRISAT, Hyderabad can be used for ploughing, stubble removing, planting and fertilizer application, interculture operation and harvesting of turmeric and groundnut. It has a mechanical linkage to lower down or raising the attachment during turns or wherever required and costs about Rs, 40,000/- 6 . US Patent No. 5267517 (Dec. 7, 1993) describes a multi-function tillage or planting implement, which can be used for leveling, planting, compacting and chemical application in single pass. However, ?Shivraj? has many innovative features: It has a provision to vary RPM of the seedmetering unit and thereby allowing different seed rates and desired plant-to-plant spacing. A thoughtful provision has been incorporated to disconnect seed metering drive using locking lever to avoid seed losses while taking a turn in the field. Provision has been made for changing the angle of penetration of soil-working tool during ploughing. Another feature is a freely mounting frame on the central axis that allows lifted up of the device at turnings. Specially built tyne type plough are provided. Three plough bottoms can be attached all at a time, full weight of machine is put into ploughing process and the angular back support ensures that plough does not bend when in use. Harrowing is done by steel tynes, which break the upper crust of the soil, uproot weeds, and pulverize the soil and mix soil and weeds. Residue is collected by a special attachment operated by a hand lever at the rear of this equipment. When the vehicle moves forward, it collects uprooted stalks, weeds and crop residue. When the lever is lifted, the collected material is dropped in to a heap to be carried away or burnt. The seed drilling attachment consists of seed box, drilling unit, seed conveying PVC tubes and furrow openers. The drilling unit gets the drive from central shaft of driven wheels through belt and pulley mechanism. It can attach two to five furrow openers, as per need. Plant-to-plant distance can be varied from 4 to 20 inches (10 to 50 cms), by varying RPM of the drive and row-to-row distance can also be adjusted similarly. Because of its high efficacy, cost of seed drilling using ?Shivraj? is less than half that of conventional bullock drawn seed drills. Weeding and intercultural operations are done by fixing suitable blades according to the need of crop being handled. For groundnut digging, the groundnut-digging blade enters four to five inches deep in the soil, cuts the roots allowing the pods to be retained along with the plant. The working width of groundnut-digging blade is 8 inches (20 cm) and it covers one row in single run with facility to adjust angle of penetration of soil working tool. For soyabean harvesting, an attachment drops the cut crop to one side for manual collection. A series of trials have been conducted on this equipment, which has evolved over the years to deliver multiple functions seamlessly, and many units have been sold in the districts of Chhindwara, Nagpur and Wardha in Maharastra.The innovator has filed a patent application for this innovation.
About the Innovator
Address: Chinndwara, Madhya Pradesh
City: Chinndwara
State: Madhya Pradesh
PIN Code 480001
Website: http://nif.org.in/innovation/Shivraj_Multipurpose_Equipment/317
Practice Details
Link: Different accessories can be attached to it for different operations like shallow ploughing, interculturing, weeding, sowing, residue collection, groundnut digging and soyabean harvesting. With modifications, it can also be used for spraying. It consists of a multi-purpose tool frame mounted freely on the central shaft of ground wheel to which accessories can be fitted: for example, the seed drilling attachment can be replaced by a sitting attachment. The field capacity of the equipment is 0.27 hectare/ hour and the cost of this product with attachments for seeding, ploughing and interculturing is around Rs. 12,000.
Manufacturing Capacity: d) Licensing, e) Franchising
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