Abstract:
Soil bed preparation is a major operation to develop productive rhizosphere which
influences yield of plants significantly. Land preparation can be carried out by different
means based on the types of the root zone of the crops. In Sri Lanka, two different land
preparation activities, primary and secondary, are done to cultivate various crops.
However, there are many factors influencing the efficiency of each land preparation
method. Hence, an attempt has been made to investigate the effect of different land
preparation activities on some selected soil physical properties such as penetration
resistance, compaction, width of cut and depth of cut. An experiment was carried out
with two wheel tractor driven land preparation implements such as mouldboard and
rotavator. The treatment codes T1, T2 and T3 resemble mouldboard, rotavator and
combination of mouldboard with rotavator, respectively, in two different moisture
levels such as normal and saturation levels. The effect of these operations on selected
soil properties was investigated by standard methods. Fuel consumption was measured
with total time for the experiment to evaluate the economic viability of the tillage
treatment. The results of this experiment help find the tillage treatment with the
positive soil physical properties to plant growth and development with an economic cost
that is affordable for farmers. Results of this study revealed that impact of treatment T3
on penetration resistance and width of cut under both moisture levels is highly
significant compared to other treatments, while, treatment T1 was highly significant for
depth of cut. Therefore, it can be concluded that treatment T3 is economical with
positive soil conditions. However, continuous evaluation of these treatments with
different crops is essential to introduce the best tillage treatment to farmers.
