Safety measures in proper use of farm equipment APPLY APPROPRIATE SAFETY MEASURES WHILE WORKING IN FARM Many hazards are present in the f...
Safety measures in proper use of farm equipment
APPLY APPROPRIATE SAFETY MEASURES WHILE WORKING IN FARM
• Hazard is the potential for harm, or adverse effect on an employee‘s health. Anything which may cause injury or ill health to anyone at or near a workplace is a hazard.
• Risk is the likelihood that a hazard will cause injury or ill health to anyone at or near a workplace. The level of risk increases with the severity of the hazard and the duration and frequency of exposure.
• Exposure occurs when a person comes into contact with a hazard.
Types and function of farm Tillage Implements
Cage wheels on the tractor are needed for traction in all soil types and these also help puddle the soil. In 4-wheel tractor systems, tined cultivators, seven-disc ploughs, offset disc ploughs and rotovators are the most commonly used equipment for second workings.
Primary Tillage implements
Implements used for opening and loosening of the soil are known as ploughs. Ploughs are used for primary tillage. Ploughs are of three types: wooden ploughs, iron or inversion ploughs and special purpose ploughs.
Wooden plough or Indigenous plough
Indigenous plough is an implement which is made of wood with an iron share point. It consists of body, shaft pole, share and handle. It is drawn with bullocks. It cuts a V shaped furrow and opens the soil but there is no inversion. Ploughing operation is also not perfect because some unploughed strip is always left between furrows. This is reduced by cross ploughing, but even then small squares remain unploughed.
Soil Turning Ploughs
Soil turning ploughs are made of iron and drawn by a pair of bullocks or two depending on the type of soil. These are also drawn by tractors.
Mouldboard Plough
The parts of mouldboard plough are frog or body, mouldboard or wing, share, landside, connecting, rod, bracket and handle. This type of plough leaves no unploughed land as the furrow slices are cut clean and inverted to one side resulting in better pulverisation. The animal drawn mouldboard plough is small, ploughs to a depth of 15 cm, while two mouldboard ploughs which are bigger in size are attached to the tractor and ploughed to a depth of 25 to 30 cm. Mouldboard ploughs are used where soil inversion is necessary. Victory plough is an animal drawn mouldboard plough with a short shaft.
Disc Plough
The disc plough bears little resemblance to the common mouldboardplough. A large, revolving, concave steel disc replaces the share and the mouldboard. The disc turns the furrow slice to one side with a scooping action. The usual size of the disc is 60 cm in diameter and this turns a 35 to 30 cm furrow slice. The disc plough is more suitable for land in which there is much fibrous growth of weeds as the disc cuts and incorporates the weeds. The disc plough works well in soils free from stones. No harrowing is necessary to break the clods of the upturned soil as in a mouldboard plough.
Turn-wrest or Reversible or One-way Plough
The plough bottom in this plough is hinged to the beam such that the mouldboard and the share can be reversed to the left or to the right side of the beam. This adjustment saves the trouble of turning the plough in hilly tracts, but yet facilitates inversion of the furrow slice to one side only.
SPECIAL PLOUGHS
Subsoil Plough
Subsoil plough is designed to break up hard layers or pans without bringing them to the surface. The body of the subsoil plough is wedge shaped and narrow while the share is wide so as to shatter the hard pan and making only a slot on the top layers.
Chisel Plough
Chisel plough is used for breaking hard pans and for deep ploughing (60-70 cm) with less disturbance to the top layers. Its body is thin with replaceable cutting edge so as to have minimum disturbance to the top layers. It contains a replaceable share to shatter the lower layers.
Ridge Plough
Ridge plough has two mould boards, one for turning the soil to the right and another to the left. The share is common for both the mould boards i.e. double winged. These mould boards are mounted on a common body. The, ridge plough is used to split the field into ridges and furrows and for earthing up of crops. Ridge ploughs are used to make broad bed and furrows by attaching two ridge ploughs on a frame at 150em spacing between them.
Rotary Plough or Rotary Hoes
Rotary plough cuts the soil and pulverizes it. The cutting of soil is done by either blades or tynes. The blade types are widely used. The depth of cut is up to 12 to 15 cm. It is suitable for light soils.
Basin Lister
Basin lister is a heavy implement with one or two mouldboards or shovels. These shovels are mounted on a special type of frame on which they act alternately. This implement is used to form listed furrows (broken furrows with small dams and basins) to prevent free runoff of rainfall and blowing off the soil in low rainfall areas.
I. TRUE OR FALSE. Write True if the statement is correct and False if the statement is not correct.
__________1. Basin lister is a heavy implement with one or two mouldboards or shovels.
__________2. The ridge plough is used to split the field into ridges and furrows and for earthing up of crops.
__________3. Wooden Ploughs are used for primary tillage.
__________4. Subsoil plough is used for breaking hard pans and for deep ploughing (60-70 cm) with less disturbance to the top layers.
__________5. Chisel plough is designed to break up hard layers or pans without bringing them to the surface
Secondary Tillage Implements
Different types of implements like cultivators, harrows, planks and rollers are used for secondary tillage.
Tractor Drawn Cultivator
Cultivator is an implement used for finer operations like breaking clods and working the soil to a fine tilth in the preparation of seedbed. Cultivator is also known as tiller or tooth harrow. It is used to further loosen the previously ploughed land before sowing. It is also used to destroy weeds that germinate after ploughing. Cultivator has two rows of tynes attached to its frame in staggered form. The main object of providing two rows and staggering the position of tynes is to provide clearance between tynes so that clods and plant residues can freely pass through without blocking. Provision is also made in the frame by drilling holes so that tynes can be set close or apart as desirect. The number of tynes ranges from 7 to 13. The shares of the tynes can be replaced when they are worn out.
Sweep Cultivator
In stubble-mulch farming, it is difficult to prepare the land with ordinary implements due to clogging. Sweep cultivator is the implements useful under this condition. It consists of large inverted V shaped blades attached to a cultivator frame. These blades run parallel to soil surface at a depth of 10 to IS cm. They are armged in two rows and staggered. Sweep cultivator is used to cut up to 12 to 15cm depth of soil during first operation after harvest and shallower during subsequent operations. It is worked frequently to control weeds. It can also be used for harvesting groundnut.
Harrows
Harrows are used for shallow cultivation in operations such as preparation of seedbed, covering seeds and destroying weed seedlings. Harrows a~ of two types: disc harrow and blade harrow.
Disc Harrow
The disc harrow consists of a number of concave discs of 45 to 55 cm in diameter. These discs are smaller in size than disc plough, but more number of discs are arranged on a frame. These discs are fitted 15cm apart on axles. Two sets of discs are mounted on two axles. All the discs revolve together with axles. The discs cut through the soil and effectively pulverise the clods.
Blade Harrow
Blade harrows are used for different purposes like removal of weeds and stubbles, crushing of clods working of soil to shallow depth, covering the seeds, intercutivation and harvesting of groundnut etc. The blade harrows useful for intercultivation are discussed later. Blade harrows are two types viz. indigenous and improved.
Indigenous Blade Harrows
The general design of an indigenous blade harrow which is known as guntaka consists of a beam to which two pegs are attached at the ends. A blade is attached to these two pegs. Two shaft poles and' a handle are the other parts of guntaka. Depending on the beam length and weight, the are known by different names and used for- different purposes.
Plank and Roller
Plank is a very simple implement and consists of a heavy wooden beam of 2 m in length. In addition, shafts and handle are fixed to the beams. When it is worked most of the clods are crushed due to its weight. It also helps in micro levelling and slight compaction necessary after sowing. Rollers are used mainly, to crush the hard clods and to compact the soil in seed rows.
Implements for Layout of seedbed
Country plough, Ridge plough, Bund former
Country plough and ridge plough are used for laying out the field into ridges and furrows or to layout irrigation channels.
Ridge ploughs, when attached to a frame can be used for making broad-bed furrows.
Bunds for irrigation in the garden lands are made usually by manual labour using spades. Bunds are also formed across the contours in the low rainfall regions to conserve soil moisture. The bund farmer is designed to form these bunds replacing manual labour. This implement consists of a pair of iron mould boards fixed in opposite direction facing each other with the front end opening outwards and rear and closing in to form bunds.
Marker is used to mark intercepts for transplanting seedlings by square planting method. It consists of a beam to which 3 or 4 wooden tyres are fixed, the spacing of which depends on the spacing the crop. When it is run in two directions, very shallow furrow markings are formed in two directions. Seedlings are transplanted at the intercepts.
Implements for sowing
Plough
The seeds are dropped by hand in the furrow formed by the country plough. The seeds faIl at uneven depths due to falling at random in furrow slice. To avoid this problem Akkadi is used. Akkadi is a hollow bamboo tube which is sharpened at one end and with wide hopper at another end. It is tied to country plough with the help of a rope and seeds dropped in the akkadi's hopper. Seeds pass through the tube and fall in the furrow opened by the plough.
Tillage: Advantages and Disadvantages
Producers must consider the advantage and disadvantages of a tillage system before changing systems. The most important advantage of conservation tillage systems is significantly less soil erosion due to wind and water. Other advantages include reduced fuel and labor requirements. However, increased reliance may be placed on herbicides with some conservation tillage systems.
II. TRUE OR FALSE. Write True if the statement is correct and False if the statement is not correct.
_____1. The disc harrow consists of a number of concave discs of 45 to 55 cm in diameter.
______2. Plank is a very simple implement and consists of a heavy wooden beam of 2 m in length.
______3. Disc Harrows are used for shallow cultivation in operations such as preparation of seedbed, covering seeds and destroying weed seedlings.
______4. Shovel it is used for digging out roots, loosening the soil or turning the materials in the compost heap.
_____ 5. It is used for levelling and loosening soil or digging the furrows for planting.
APPLY APPROPRIATE SAFETY MEASURES WHILE WORKING IN FARM
Many hazards are present in the farm. If the farmers are not aware of these hazards these may cause injury to their body or may cause diseases and even death. Farmer should always apply appropriate safety measures while working in the farm. In this lesson the students with the guidance and supervision of their teacher should identify farm works that involve the use of chemicals and hazardous tools and equipment; determine the uses of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and determine farm emergency procedures regarding safety working environment.
HAZARD, RISK AND EXPOSURE IN THE FARM
Agricultural crop production deals with a lot of activities to be done in the different workplace. While performing these activities we expose ourselves to a lot of risk. Workplace hazard is a major cause of accident, injury, or harm to a worker who performs such task. These hazards should be the major concern of all who are involved in a certain job or work.
HAZARD, RISK AND EXPOSURE IN THE FARM
Agricultural crop production deals with a lot of activities to be done in the different workplace. While performing these activities we expose ourselves to a lot of risk. Workplace hazard is a major cause of accident, injury, or harm to a worker who performs such task. These hazards should be the major concern of all who are involved in a certain job or work.
• Hazard is the potential for harm, or adverse effect on an employee‘s health. Anything which may cause injury or ill health to anyone at or near a workplace is a hazard.
• Risk is the likelihood that a hazard will cause injury or ill health to anyone at or near a workplace. The level of risk increases with the severity of the hazard and the duration and frequency of exposure.
• Exposure occurs when a person comes into contact with a hazard.
Types and function of farm Tillage Implements
Cage wheels on the tractor are needed for traction in all soil types and these also help puddle the soil. In 4-wheel tractor systems, tined cultivators, seven-disc ploughs, offset disc ploughs and rotovators are the most commonly used equipment for second workings.
Primary Tillage implements
Implements used for opening and loosening of the soil are known as ploughs. Ploughs are used for primary tillage. Ploughs are of three types: wooden ploughs, iron or inversion ploughs and special purpose ploughs.
Wooden plough or Indigenous plough
Indigenous plough is an implement which is made of wood with an iron share point. It consists of body, shaft pole, share and handle. It is drawn with bullocks. It cuts a V shaped furrow and opens the soil but there is no inversion. Ploughing operation is also not perfect because some unploughed strip is always left between furrows. This is reduced by cross ploughing, but even then small squares remain unploughed.
Soil Turning Ploughs
Soil turning ploughs are made of iron and drawn by a pair of bullocks or two depending on the type of soil. These are also drawn by tractors.
Mouldboard Plough
The parts of mouldboard plough are frog or body, mouldboard or wing, share, landside, connecting, rod, bracket and handle. This type of plough leaves no unploughed land as the furrow slices are cut clean and inverted to one side resulting in better pulverisation. The animal drawn mouldboard plough is small, ploughs to a depth of 15 cm, while two mouldboard ploughs which are bigger in size are attached to the tractor and ploughed to a depth of 25 to 30 cm. Mouldboard ploughs are used where soil inversion is necessary. Victory plough is an animal drawn mouldboard plough with a short shaft.
Disc Plough
The disc plough bears little resemblance to the common mouldboardplough. A large, revolving, concave steel disc replaces the share and the mouldboard. The disc turns the furrow slice to one side with a scooping action. The usual size of the disc is 60 cm in diameter and this turns a 35 to 30 cm furrow slice. The disc plough is more suitable for land in which there is much fibrous growth of weeds as the disc cuts and incorporates the weeds. The disc plough works well in soils free from stones. No harrowing is necessary to break the clods of the upturned soil as in a mouldboard plough.
Turn-wrest or Reversible or One-way Plough
The plough bottom in this plough is hinged to the beam such that the mouldboard and the share can be reversed to the left or to the right side of the beam. This adjustment saves the trouble of turning the plough in hilly tracts, but yet facilitates inversion of the furrow slice to one side only.
SPECIAL PLOUGHS
Subsoil Plough
Subsoil plough is designed to break up hard layers or pans without bringing them to the surface. The body of the subsoil plough is wedge shaped and narrow while the share is wide so as to shatter the hard pan and making only a slot on the top layers.
Chisel Plough
Chisel plough is used for breaking hard pans and for deep ploughing (60-70 cm) with less disturbance to the top layers. Its body is thin with replaceable cutting edge so as to have minimum disturbance to the top layers. It contains a replaceable share to shatter the lower layers.
Ridge Plough
Ridge plough has two mould boards, one for turning the soil to the right and another to the left. The share is common for both the mould boards i.e. double winged. These mould boards are mounted on a common body. The, ridge plough is used to split the field into ridges and furrows and for earthing up of crops. Ridge ploughs are used to make broad bed and furrows by attaching two ridge ploughs on a frame at 150em spacing between them.
Rotary Plough or Rotary Hoes
Rotary plough cuts the soil and pulverizes it. The cutting of soil is done by either blades or tynes. The blade types are widely used. The depth of cut is up to 12 to 15 cm. It is suitable for light soils.
Basin Lister
Basin lister is a heavy implement with one or two mouldboards or shovels. These shovels are mounted on a special type of frame on which they act alternately. This implement is used to form listed furrows (broken furrows with small dams and basins) to prevent free runoff of rainfall and blowing off the soil in low rainfall areas.
I. TRUE OR FALSE. Write True if the statement is correct and False if the statement is not correct.
__________1. Basin lister is a heavy implement with one or two mouldboards or shovels.
__________2. The ridge plough is used to split the field into ridges and furrows and for earthing up of crops.
__________3. Wooden Ploughs are used for primary tillage.
__________4. Subsoil plough is used for breaking hard pans and for deep ploughing (60-70 cm) with less disturbance to the top layers.
__________5. Chisel plough is designed to break up hard layers or pans without bringing them to the surface
Secondary Tillage Implements
Different types of implements like cultivators, harrows, planks and rollers are used for secondary tillage.
Tractor Drawn Cultivator
Cultivator is an implement used for finer operations like breaking clods and working the soil to a fine tilth in the preparation of seedbed. Cultivator is also known as tiller or tooth harrow. It is used to further loosen the previously ploughed land before sowing. It is also used to destroy weeds that germinate after ploughing. Cultivator has two rows of tynes attached to its frame in staggered form. The main object of providing two rows and staggering the position of tynes is to provide clearance between tynes so that clods and plant residues can freely pass through without blocking. Provision is also made in the frame by drilling holes so that tynes can be set close or apart as desirect. The number of tynes ranges from 7 to 13. The shares of the tynes can be replaced when they are worn out.
Sweep Cultivator
In stubble-mulch farming, it is difficult to prepare the land with ordinary implements due to clogging. Sweep cultivator is the implements useful under this condition. It consists of large inverted V shaped blades attached to a cultivator frame. These blades run parallel to soil surface at a depth of 10 to IS cm. They are armged in two rows and staggered. Sweep cultivator is used to cut up to 12 to 15cm depth of soil during first operation after harvest and shallower during subsequent operations. It is worked frequently to control weeds. It can also be used for harvesting groundnut.
Harrows
Harrows are used for shallow cultivation in operations such as preparation of seedbed, covering seeds and destroying weed seedlings. Harrows a~ of two types: disc harrow and blade harrow.
Disc Harrow
The disc harrow consists of a number of concave discs of 45 to 55 cm in diameter. These discs are smaller in size than disc plough, but more number of discs are arranged on a frame. These discs are fitted 15cm apart on axles. Two sets of discs are mounted on two axles. All the discs revolve together with axles. The discs cut through the soil and effectively pulverise the clods.
Blade Harrow
Blade harrows are used for different purposes like removal of weeds and stubbles, crushing of clods working of soil to shallow depth, covering the seeds, intercutivation and harvesting of groundnut etc. The blade harrows useful for intercultivation are discussed later. Blade harrows are two types viz. indigenous and improved.
Indigenous Blade Harrows
The general design of an indigenous blade harrow which is known as guntaka consists of a beam to which two pegs are attached at the ends. A blade is attached to these two pegs. Two shaft poles and' a handle are the other parts of guntaka. Depending on the beam length and weight, the are known by different names and used for- different purposes.
Plank and Roller
Plank is a very simple implement and consists of a heavy wooden beam of 2 m in length. In addition, shafts and handle are fixed to the beams. When it is worked most of the clods are crushed due to its weight. It also helps in micro levelling and slight compaction necessary after sowing. Rollers are used mainly, to crush the hard clods and to compact the soil in seed rows.
Implements for Layout of seedbed
Country plough, Ridge plough, Bund former
Country plough and ridge plough are used for laying out the field into ridges and furrows or to layout irrigation channels.
Ridge ploughs, when attached to a frame can be used for making broad-bed furrows.
Bunds for irrigation in the garden lands are made usually by manual labour using spades. Bunds are also formed across the contours in the low rainfall regions to conserve soil moisture. The bund farmer is designed to form these bunds replacing manual labour. This implement consists of a pair of iron mould boards fixed in opposite direction facing each other with the front end opening outwards and rear and closing in to form bunds.
Marker is used to mark intercepts for transplanting seedlings by square planting method. It consists of a beam to which 3 or 4 wooden tyres are fixed, the spacing of which depends on the spacing the crop. When it is run in two directions, very shallow furrow markings are formed in two directions. Seedlings are transplanted at the intercepts.
Implements for sowing
Plough
The seeds are dropped by hand in the furrow formed by the country plough. The seeds faIl at uneven depths due to falling at random in furrow slice. To avoid this problem Akkadi is used. Akkadi is a hollow bamboo tube which is sharpened at one end and with wide hopper at another end. It is tied to country plough with the help of a rope and seeds dropped in the akkadi's hopper. Seeds pass through the tube and fall in the furrow opened by the plough.
Tillage: Advantages and Disadvantages
Producers must consider the advantage and disadvantages of a tillage system before changing systems. The most important advantage of conservation tillage systems is significantly less soil erosion due to wind and water. Other advantages include reduced fuel and labor requirements. However, increased reliance may be placed on herbicides with some conservation tillage systems.
|
Table 1. Advantages
and Disadvantages of Selected Tillage Systems |
||
|
System |
Major advantages |
Major disadvantages |
|
Plow |
Suited
for poorly drained soils. Excellent incorporation. Well-tilled seedbed. |
Major
soil erosion. High soil moisture loss. Timeliness considerations. Highest
fuel and labor costs. |
|
Chisel |
Less
winter wind erosion from roughened surface. Well adapted to poorly drained
soils. Good incorporation. |
Little
erosion control. High soil moisture loss. Shredding may be needed for residue
flow. Medium fuel and labor requirements. |
|
Disk |
Less
erosion with more residue. Well adapted for well-drained soils. Good
incorporation. |
Little
erosion control with more operations. High soil moisture loss. Destroys soil
structure. Compacts wet soil. |
|
Ridge
Plant |
Excellent
for furrow irrigation or poorly drained soils. Ridges warm up and dry out
quickly. Well suited for organic production. |
No
incorporation. Must be annual row crops. Wheel spacing and other machinery
modifications may be needed. Creating and maintaining ridges. |
|
Strip-till |
Tilled
residue-free strip warms quickly. Injection of nutrients into row area. Well
suited for poorly drained soils. |
Cost
of preplant operation. Strips may dry too much, crust, or erode without
residue. Not suited for drilled crops. Timeliness in wet falls. Possible RTK
guidance costs |
II. TRUE OR FALSE. Write True if the statement is correct and False if the statement is not correct.
_____1. The disc harrow consists of a number of concave discs of 45 to 55 cm in diameter.
______2. Plank is a very simple implement and consists of a heavy wooden beam of 2 m in length.
______3. Disc Harrows are used for shallow cultivation in operations such as preparation of seedbed, covering seeds and destroying weed seedlings.
______4. Shovel it is used for digging out roots, loosening the soil or turning the materials in the compost heap.
_____ 5. It is used for levelling and loosening soil or digging the furrows for planting.
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