ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF DEVELOPED WALKING TYPE MULTI-CROP POWER WEEDERJinukala Srinivas, P. Babu, N.L. Kalyan Chakravarthi, Korla Harshavardhan and S.S. MeenaAbstract Weeding is a labor-intensive task in agriculture, constituting a significant portion of cultivation expenses. Manual weeding demands substantial labor and suffers from drawbacks such as discomfort and time consumption. Chemical weeding, though costly, can damage the soil quality and increases the cost of cultivation. Addressing small and marginal land holdings prevalent in ndia, rotary power weeders offer an economical alternative. A walking-type multi-crop power weeder was developed to address variable crop row spacing and an economic viability study was conducted for the developed machine. The performance parameters such as actual field capacity, payback period, break-even point and the total cost of operation of walking type multi-crop power weeder were calculated as 0.03 ha/h, 0.41 years, 53.2 h/ year and Rs.193 per hour respectively. In terms of operational efficiency and cost savings, the developed weeder outperforms manual weeding. |