Abstract

An electric motor operated power tiller was developed and field evaluated. Field tests were conducted with 200, 250,300, 350 and 400 mm width of sweep blade fitted to the electric tiller at 20,40,60,80 and 100 mm depth of operation and at 1.05, 1.57,2.09 and 2.61 km h-1 forward speed. The tiller with 200 mm width of sweep blade at 80 mm depth and 1.05 km h-1 speed performed better with minimum wheel slip of 5.5 per cent and maximum field capacity of 7.4x 10 ha h'. The tiller costs Rs.20.000. Operational cost of the tiller for weeding was calculated to be Rs. 450 ha as compared to Rs.2000 ha-1 for the manual method.

Keywords: Power tiller, Electric tiller, Sweep, Green house equipment.