Fuel Consumption Pattern of Some Selected Tillage Systems on the Atabadzi Soil Series of Ghana

Select Volume / Issue:

• Volume 2 Issue 2, March, 2015

Year:

2015

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

Atabatzi Soil Series, Fuel Consumption Pattern, Mounted Offset Disc Harrow, Tillage Systems

Authors:

Taiwo, Adewunmi

Journal:

IJRAS

Volume:

2

Number:

2

Pages:

74-78

Month:

March

ISSN:

2348- –

Note:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Abstract:

This paper developed and tested a tillage system that will optimize fuel consumption in primary and seco-ndary tillage operations for farmers in Ghana and other West African countries with similar soil and socio-economic environments. The general objective of this study was to investigate the effects of four different tillage systems (A, B, C, and D) on the fuel consumption of tractor providing power to the attached tillage implements during the tillage of Atabadzi soil series of Ghana at the beginning of the cropping season. The specific objectives were to: 1. use mounted 2-bottom and 3-bottom disk plough as well as offset disk harrow/tractor aggregates to develop four different tillage systems (A, B, C and D) and use to carry out field tests in the selected soil series. 2. Test the effect of the four different tillage systems on the fuel consumption pattern of the two-wheel tractor providing power to the attached tillage implements.3.Perform an analysis of variance with a view to determine whether there is a significant difference between the fuel consumptions of the investigated tillage systems. A one-way classification or one-factor experiment was carried out in three replications using complete rand-omization design (CRD) for the experimental plots. A study area of 2,025m 2(or 0.2025 ha) was demarcated and divided into three plots of 675m2 (36.66m × 18.33m) each. It was concluded from the study that carrying out first ploughing operation on the Atabadzi soil series of Ghana with the use of mounted 2-bottom disk plough made the tractor providing power for the tractor/implement aggregate to consume more fuel than when a mounted 3-bottom disk plough was used when the soil moisture content was 1.67 % (w.b.); The mean fuel consumption for the use of 2-bottom and 3-bottom disk ploughs for the first ploughing operations on the soil series were 21.0 and 13.13 L/ha respectively. Similar results were obtained for the second ploughing operation although the mean fuel consumption were 12.4 and 11.43 L/ha respectively. It was also be concluded from the study that the fuel consumption for harrowing on the soil series initially ploughed with 3- and 2-bottom disc plough using off-set disc harrow immediately after the second ploughing operation were 7.5 and 7.63 L /ha respectively, although the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05) despite the diff-erences in the widths of cut for the two mounted plough types

Full text: IJRAS-221_Final.pdf [Bibtex]