10:45 〜 11:00
[5-1015-D-03] EFFECT OF DIFFERENT MODES OF PLANTING AND WEEDING ON MACHINE FIELD CAPACITY AND YIELD OF A MIXED CROPPING SMALL HOLDER FARM
キーワード：planting, weeding, field capacity, yield
Nigeria has great potential for cultivation of a wide variety of crops as its soil and climatic conditions are suitable for crop cultivation. However, growing crops with human labour (planting, weeding) has been the common practice. After an initial conventional tillage, labour saving mechanical jab and rotary planters, reciprocating weeder and manual methods were used to establish a mixed cropping one hectare farm of maize and cassava under rain-fed conditions The effects of these treatments were studied using the following parameters: field capacity of planting, weeding and yield of crops. The highest field capacity among the planting modes was that of rotary planting with 1.53 ha/hr while, 0.44 ha/hr and 0.24 ha/hr were obtained for jab and manual planting respectively. A field capacity of 0.012ha/hr was obtained for mechanical weeding as against 0.0036 ha/hr with manual weeding. The yields of the maize stover are as follows: Manual planting 6.9 tonnes/ha, Rotary planting 11.5 tonnes/ha, Jab planting 3.9 tonnes/ha while that of the average ear weight are 15.42 tonnes/ha for rotary planting, 10.33 tonnes/ha for manual planting and 5.83 tonnes/ha for jab planting. The effect of the use of chemical weeding reduced the yield of cassava roots to 60 ton/ha as against 81 ton/ha for manual/mechanical weeding. Further investigation is ongoing to substantiate the facts. However, these observations are in agreement with the fact that mechanical manipulation of the soil by way of planting and weeding loosen the soil between rows, thus increasing air and water intake capacity, thereby increasing yield.