Wheat is one of the major food crops of Nepal after rice and maize. Traditional methods of wheat cultivation are labor intensive, tedious, time taking, and demands huge amount of resources that increase the cost of cultivation, therefore farmers get less benefit from this practice. Nepalese agriculture is facing labor scarcity due to a lack of youth and skilled manpower who migrated to urban areas and the gulf countries in search of better opportunities. In order to address this issue, Agricultural Machinery Testing and Research Centre (AMTRC), Nawalpur, Sarlahi had conducted participatory research on zero tillage technologies for wheat cultivation in Mahottari districts during 2076/077 (2019/20) and 077/078 (2020/21). The research trials were carried out in four replications with three treatments i.e. zero tillage technology through seed cum fertilizer seed drill machine (T1), one ploughing + one harrowing + seeding (T2) and the third treatment was farmers' practice (T3). For this purpose wheat variety, Gautam was selected and sown @120 kg/ha and fertilizer recommended @100:60:40 N: P2O5: K2O kg/ha respectively. The average grain yield was recorded highest 1726 kg/ha and 3112 kg/ha by the use of seed cum fertilizer seed drill machine in first and second year respectively followed by farmers' practice with an average yield of 1675 kg/ha and 2925 kg/ha and lowest from the practice of one ploughing + one harrowing + seeding which produced 1530 kg/ha and 2655 kg/ha respectively in first and second year of experiment. Thus highest net return of Rs. 20707.38 /ha was obtained from the use of seed cum fertilizer seed drill machine which was 22.97 per cent more than farmers' practices. Thus, zero tillage technology through seed cum fertilizer seed drill machine method was found suitable for wheat cultivation for the benefit of the farmers.

Wheat, Mechanization, Zero Tillage Technology, machine farming

The zero tillage technology was most cost effective for wheat cultivation practices. Zero tillage by seed cum fertilizer seed drill machine was found the most economical because it saves labor, time, irrigation water, reduce cost of cultivation and increase net return per hectare to the farmers. Thus it is recommended to provide incentives to the farmers who want to purchase the zero tillage machines for wheat cultivation.

Ram Nath Jha, Roshan Kumar Sah, Arbind Jha and Lalan Kumar Singh (2022). Assessment and Evaluation of Zero Tillage Technology for Wheat Cultivation by using Seed Cum Fertilizer Seed Drill in Madhesh Province of Nepal. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4a): 246-250.