Design Modification, Adaptation and Verification of Spike Tooth Harrow for Pack Animals

Abstract

It was observed that, farmers in the test area repeat farm tillage usually from 3 to 6 to prepare seedbed by using oxen and traditional ‘Marasha’. But these practices are causing exhaustion for both the farmers and oxen which are less resistive to such conditions. In addition, as the affordability of the oxen is becoming difficult and the traditional ‘Marasha’ is not suitable for reducing the repetitive tillage. Therefore this activity was aimed at modifying and verifying existing spike tooth harrow for secondary tillage and for donkey and horse harnessing suitability. Field evaluation of the modified implement was carried out to determine plowing width and depth, clod breakage (soil pulverization) and working capacity (hr/ha). Test result of the modified implement showed that 63.4 % clod breakage or soil pulverization within an average time of 3.8 hr/ha, which takes a day by using the (‘Marasha’). The average yield of grain worked by spike-tooth harrow was 80 quintal/ha and that of ‘Marasha’ with oxen was 67quintal/ha.

Keywords: clod size, tillage, spikes