Innovative Blade and Tine Push Weeder for Enhancing Weeding Efficiency of Small Farmers

Sustainable agriculture is central to addressing the difficulties farmers face, such as a lack of manpower, high input prices, and environmental effects from the widespread use of chemical herbicides. In farming, eliminating unwanted plants from crops is a laborious task crucial for enhancing sustainable crop yield. Traditionally, this process is carried out manually globally, utilizing tools such as wheel hoes, sickles, chris, powers, shovels, and hand forks. However, this manual approach is time-consuming, demanding in terms of labor, and imposes significant physiological strain, leading to premature operator fatigue. In response to this challenge, blade and tine-type push weeders were developed to enhance weeding efficiency for smallholder farmers. When blade and tine push weeders are pushed between the rows of crops, the front tine blade of the trolley efficiently uproots the weeds, while the straight blade at the back pushes the uprooted weeds. This dual-action mechanism ensures effective weed elimination by both uprooting and clearing the weeds without disturbing the crops. The blade and tine-type push weeders demonstrated actual and theoretical field capacities of 0.020 ha/h and 0.026 ha/h, achieving a commendable field efficiency of 85%. The weeders exhibited a cutting width ranging from 30 to 50 mm, a cutting depth between 250 and 270 mm, a draft of 1.8 kg, a weeding efficiency of 78%, and a plant damage rate of 2.7%. The cost of weeding was 2108 INR/ha for the green pea crop.