Theoretical and experimental analysis of mechanical incorporation of biomass for soil fertility improvement

Abstract

Biomass incorporation is viable practice in rainfed agriculture but it could be not practiced by farmers due to non-availability of suitable farm implements. Biomass incorporation and its distribution in soil, size of chopped material, homogeneity of soil-biomass mixture and its effects on decomposition and soil fertility improvements, energy and cost of operation, environmental issues for sustainability are important in present practice of biomass incorporation using rotary tools. The tools used in present practice are tillage tools and not designed for biomass incorporation. Attempt has been made to characterize available biomass ands desired tools-soil-biomass interaction for deciding the design parameters for desirable rotary tools. Based on review the best result could be expected if well-chopped biomass is incorporated in productive zone with uniform mixing instead of placing longer stalks on or near the surface. While analyzing performance of existing implements initially it was observed that Rotary tiller+Rotary tiller was found superior in terms of energy, cost and chopping efficiency point of view.