THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Agricultural University’s Agricultural Research Station at Mannuthy, near here, has successfully tested a bailing device for collecting and bundling straw thrown out by paddy combine harvesters.
Head of ARS Prof. U Jayakumaran told ‘Express’ that with the introduction of combines, harvesting of paddy had become easy, “but it has been at the expense of the valuable straw”.
Usually 1.5 to 2 tonnes of straw could be collected through manual harvesting of paddy. Straw output went down to as low as 0.6 tonnes an acre when combines of ‘cut straw’ type were used for harvesting. Collection of this cut straw was very difficult and hence farmers were forced to abandon the straw in the field itself.
Even with combines of ‘whole straw type’, the straw collection was difficult. So farmers have been looking for a straw bailing unit which will pick up the straw bits, stack and bundle them.
The ARS the other day tested a tractor power takeoff device-driven bailer at Ponnamutha Kole Padavu. Jayakumaran said this bailer brought by Red Land Motors, required only 50 minutes to collect and bail straw from one acre.
The straw is bundled as rolls 70 cm long, 50 cm in diameter and weighing about 15 kg. A total of 65 to 70 such rolls were bailed out by the equipment from one acre; it could collect nearly a tonne of straw in 50 minutes.
With cattlefeed prices rising and grazing land shrinking very fast, paddy straw now is a dear commodity for farmers and is sold at Rs 5/kg to cattle farmers by vendors. This means the use of straw-bailing equipment can bring an extra income of at least Rs 5,000 from each acre of paddy land.
Almost all the straw from the district’s 30,000 acres of ‘kole’ land is burnt for want of man and machine to collect it, and mechanical bailing can save straw worth Rs 15 crore per season.
Jayakumaran estimates that the straw thus collected is sufficient to provide fodder for 8,000 adult animals. The KAU plans to supply the bailer units to farmers next paddy season, he added.
THE Kerala Agricultural University’s Agricultural Research Station at Mannuthy, near here, has successfully tested a bailing device for collecting and bundling straw thrown out by paddy combine harvesters.
Head of ARS Prof. U Jayakumaran told ‘Express’ that with the introduction of combines, harvesting of paddy had become easy, “but it has been at the expense of the valuable straw”.
Usually 1.5 to 2 tonnes of straw could be collected through manual harvesting of paddy. Straw output went down to as low as 0.6 tonnes an acre when combines of ‘cut straw’ type were used for harvesting. Collection of this cut straw was very difficult and hence farmers were forced to abandon the straw in the field itself.
Even with combines of ‘whole straw type’, the straw collection was difficult. So farmers have been looking for a straw bailing unit which will pick up the straw bits, stack and bundle them.
The ARS the other day tested a tractor power takeoff device-driven bailer at Ponnamutha Kole Padavu. Jayakumaran said this bailer brought by Red Land Motors, required only 50 minutes to collect and bail straw from one acre.
The straw is bundled as rolls 70 cm long, 50 cm in diameter and weighing about 15 kg. A total of 65 to 70 such rolls were bailed out by the equipment from one acre; it could collect nearly a tonne of straw in 50 minutes.
With cattlefeed prices rising and grazing land shrinking very fast, paddy straw now is a dear commodity for farmers and is sold at Rs 5/kg to cattle farmers by vendors. This means the use of straw-bailing equipment can bring an extra income of at least Rs 5,000 from each acre of paddy land.
Almost all the straw from the district’s 30,000 acres of ‘kole’ land is burnt for want of man and machine to collect it, and mechanical bailing can save straw worth Rs 15 crore per season.
Jayakumaran estimates that the straw thus collected is sufficient to provide fodder for 8,000 adult animals. The KAU plans to supply the bailer units to farmers next paddy season, he added.