Faridkot
The tractor mounted boom sprayer is really turning out to be a boon for the farmers because of the effectiveness of its sprays on the wheat crop either to kill weeds or spraying some micronutrients.
When the weed killer chemicals are sprayed on the wheat crop with the knapsack sprayers or power driven back mounted sprayers, they do not uniformly spray the weedicides on the crop leaving many gaps and resulting into the thick growth of the weeds year by year which turn out to be chemical resistant.
As per the recommendations of agriculture experts, a weedicide is required to be mixed into 150 litres of water per acre which is usually not done by the farmers. They hardly use 100 litres of water per acre.
“But tractor mounted boom sprayer is very effective. I managed to get it hired this season and have done two sprays on the crop by it. First I got some micronutrient sprayed by it and now I have got a weedicide sprayed with it. The results are very good,” said Jaswinder Singh, a farmer from village Bir Sikhan Wala.
“In the cold weather, spraying weedicides and other chemicals on crops is a tough task and ineffective. I have hired a tractor mounted boom sprayer this wheat season and have done two sprays by it. They charge Rs 180 per acre which is reasonable and if more such apparatus come next year, the per acre rates may drop,” said Parwinder Singh, another farmer of the village.
The tractor mounted boom sprayer is fitted with two hydraulic adjustable arms with downwards nozzles fitted on both of them which spray uniformly on the crop.It is usually fitted with a water tank of the capacity of 1000 litres and can spray about 7 acres in one go in less than an hour.
In one day, it can spray about 40 acres of weedicides on wheat easily.
“Though the original company manufactured tractor mounted boom sprayers are very costly, ranging between 10 to 15 lakh, but now local spray punp manufactures have copied the design and technique. They usually buy tractors engines and gearboxes from junk dealers and other equipment are fitted with it. The transmission case is changed and four original tires are replaced with very big and thin tires so that they don't damage the tall crops. These kind of boom sprayers(modified) cost between Rs 5 lakh to 9 lakh,” the farmers said.
But boom sprayers in years to come may engulf the local labour which is dependent on the earnings by spraying crops and broadcasting fertilizers.
Besides spraying, the locally made boom sprayers are also fitted with fertilizer broadcast system and they can do both the works, spraying and broadcasting fertilizers at the same time.
But it needs almost almost dry fields, not slippery.
“They can not hit us out because mostly fields are wet in this season and boom sprayers, if driven in wet fields, damage the crops. We hope our employment would not be much effected with those,” said Neetu Singh, whose team continues to spray and broadcast fertilizers most time of the year on crops.
The boom sprayers are very effective for spraying on small wheat, directly sown rice, pulse crops, sugarcane and cotton.