Economics of a Wheel Operated Boom Sprayer for Small Holding Farmers

Author: Obaid Zaffar and Sanjay Khar

Journal Name:

Download PDF

Abstract

Pesticides have substantially aided in the development of agricultural yields by controlling pests and diseases and these pesticides are either sprayed using knapsack sprayer or tractor operated boom sprayers. The knapsack sprayer has very low field capacity and tractor operated sprayer are costly. The present study was conducted to carry out the economic analysis of a wheel operated boom which was developed at Division of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences Technology of Jammu. The fabrication cost of the developed sprayer was about `5600 including the of cost of booms, nozzles and other required accessories. In general, the operation cost of wheel operated boom sprayer was about 55 `/h. The operational cost in terms of per hectare of working were 195, 146 and 109 `/ha with attachment boom carrying two, three and four nozzles’ respectively. In comparison to the conventional spraying the wheel operated boom sprayer results in the time saving of 53.7, 66.25 and 74.0 % with the use of boom carrying two, three and four nozzles respectively. The study concluded that a wheel operated boom sprayer was economically feasible and also results in saving of time and reduces drudgery in comparison to the conventional knapsack sprayer.

Keywords

Sprayer, operational cost, nozzle, straight line method

Conclusion

The fabrication cost of the wheel operated boom sprayer was estimated to be `5600 including the cost the boom and the nozzles. In all three types of booms the field capacity obtained was greater than the field capacity (0.125 ha/h) by conventional knapsack sprayer which resulted in 53.7, 66.25 and 74.0 % saving of time using the boom with two, three and four nozzles respectively. The operating cost (`/ha) of wheel operated boom sprayer obtained was only `194.6, 145.9 and 109.4/ha which is very low in comparison to the traditional spraying method adopted by the marginal and small farmers. Thus, the development wheel operated boom sprayer serves the purpose in terms of economic feasibility and also results in saving of time and reduces drudgery in comparison to the conventional knapsack sprayer.

References

-

How to cite this article

Obaid Zaffar and Sanjay Khar (2023). Economics of a Wheel Operated Boom Sprayer for Small Holding Farmers. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(4): 446-449.