Electropulse Weed Control as an Element of Organic Farming in Sustainable Agriculture

The current state of agricultural land makes us think about the need to search for new, innovative methods of weed control since relying only on intensive chemical and historically justified mechanical processing of soil areas is not always justified today, due to the fact that nature is cumulatively inflicted with environmental damage and humus, and organic matter reserves in the soil continue to be uncontrollably depleted. It is proposed to use electropulse weeding as a technologically and ecologically justified alternative to traditional methods. The conducted studies on the electrical conductivity of the weed plant tissue and processing current flow circuits, identifying the option of supplying electrical energy and damaging doses of energy, made it possible to justify the structure of the unit, consisting of a mover (a wheeled tractor) and an electrotechnological unit, as well as to evaluate the economic and agro-technological efficiency of its use in agricultural technologies. In principle, the unit consists of three main structural blocks: a movement power unit (a universal row-crop wheeled tractor), a power source, and an electrode system. In order to achieve lower cost of the device and greater maneuverability of the unit, it is preferable to choose the option with a trailer generating unit and mounted units for increasing voltage, forming pulses and an electrode system. Analysis of the total energy costs during the electric pulse treatment of soil areas from weeds and unwanted plants, and their assessment during cultivation of winter wheat of the Mironovskaya Yubileynaya variety on the black fallow on the lands of Volgograd oblast made it possible to reasonably consider such treatment to be less energy-intensive compared to mechanical cultivation and chemical weeding on an area of 100 hectares, and also implemented with a minimal negative impact on the environment.