CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE

TOOLS and EQUIPMENT

By

Peter Kuria

Conservation Agriculture training for MoA staff, Nairobi on 6th

November, 2012

Tillage Systems

• Traditional practices

• Minimum tillage

Traditional practices

• Land clearing

• Primary tillage

• Secondary tillage

• Ridging

• Crust breaking etc

Why till?

• Tradition

• Seedbed preparation

• Manage crop residue

• Incorporate fertilizers and agro-chemicals

• Weed control and pests

• Soil water storage and retention

• Soil aeration

• Warming-up the soil

Inappropriate tillage practice

Tillage system

Reduction of

vegetative cover

Erosion

Increased

run-off

Wind erosion

Pulverization of

surface layer

Reduction of water

infiltration

Inefficient use of water

and fertilizers

Compaction of

underlying layer

Bad root

development

LOW YIELDS

HIGH PRODUCTION

COSTS

POLLUTION

Residue left with different land

preparations after harvest

• Moulboard plough 0-15%

• Discs operation (2 operations) 0-10%

• Chisel (2 operations) 30-40%

• Direct seeding 80-95%

Disadvantages of tillage

• Loss of soil moisture

• Limits water infiltration through surface

sealing

• Destroys the soil structure

• Increases erosion risk

• Increases operational costs

• High demand on power, time and

equipment

OLD PARADIGM (Conventional agriculture)

STATUS OF OUR LANDSCAPE

Consequences of old paradigm agriculture

Effects

• Removal of cover

• Disruption of pores

• Destruction of structure

• Loss of organic matter

Crop failure is imminent through conventional tillage and due to low OM/poor soil-water

holding, poor aggregate stability

Conservation Agriculture

• An alternative to conventional tillage

– Permanent soil cover

– Minimal or no mechanical soil disturbance

– Crop rotations and/or associations

Functions of Conservation

Agriculture

• Conserve the soil

• Soil moisture retention

• Improve the soil’s productivity

• Reduce machinery costs

• Reduce labour input

Advantages of Conservation

Agriculture

• Increases organic matter

• Increases soil water content

• Improves soil structure

• Increases crop yields

• Allows more time off for other activities

• More cost-effective

Ameliorate plough pans and soil

compaction

• Sub-soiling

• Planting basins

• Biological tillage

using cover crops

with tap roots:

Cajanus cajan,

Dolichos lablab,

Tools and Equipment used in

Conservation Agriculture

• Minimum tillage equipment

• Direct seeding equipment

• Cover crop and weed management

equipment

Minimum tillage equipment

Application is confined to area where the crop is going to

be planted leaving the rest of the area undisturbed

Usually tine based to avoid soil inversion & excessive soil

disturbance

Rippers

Sub-soiler

Chisel plough

Rippers or

chisels

●Poor weed control

● Clogging

● Needs proper soil

moisture (crumbling

or dryer)

● Lifting stones/clods

● Needs lots of power

Magoye ripper (with wings)

Ripping practices

Permanent wide (2 m) beds

Two row chisel plough from Ndume

Sub-soilers

Breaks hard pans and compacted soil layers

Disadvantages:

● Should be used in dry soils only

● Needs a lot of power, and beyond 30cm difficult

with animals

● Easy to smear if used improperly

● Water infiltration will not improve a lot when used

improperly

• It is only necessary to till where you want to plant.

• Hard pans must be removed before commencing

CA practice

• Never subsoil wet soil, you will cause serious

damage to the soil structure

• Sub-soiling is best done soon after harvesting

when the soil is not too hard to reduce draft

requirement

Subsoiler and subsoiling activities

Lime distributer

Direct seeding

equipment/methods

● Broadcasting

● Planting stick

● Hand jab planter

● Animal drawn

● Motorized or tractor

How does CA work for hand hoe farmers?

In Hand hoe Farming Systems

Dibble stick

Basins

Jab planter

Hand held

Planting stick

Hand hoe

Hand jab planter

The simplest, and oldest,

tool for planting through

mulch is a stick with a

sharpened, or steel clad, tip

Jab planter (Matraca)

Common problems with the

jab planter

• Clogging

• Inconsistency with number of seeds dropped per station

• Skipped holes

Animal drawn direct seeding

equipment

Fitarelli in use

No-till animal drawn planters

Common problems with

animal-drawn planter

• Uneven spacing

• Variation in number of seeds/station

• Seed breakage

– The above problems are largely caused by seed size variation

• Trash accumulation at the front of furrow opener –

caused by dull or improperly adjusted coulter or difficult

trash

Motorized direct seeding equipment

Newly Developed Prototype

Seed box

Fertilizer box

Clutches

Engine

Separator

Sowing wheat on date 11-11-09

Motorized direct seeding equipment

Three row director seeder from Fitarelli, Brazil

No-til planter from TATU, Brazil

Three-row planter from TATU, Brazil

No-till planter

No till planter

Cover crop and weed management

equipment

• Mechanical management

• Chemical management

Cover crops

Mechanical weed management

equipment options

Hand operated weeders

Animal drawn light weight weeder Knife roller

Mechanical weed control with

shallow weeders

Knife rollers

Chemical weed control equipment

options

Pedestrian-pulled4-nozzle sprayer Zamwipe herbicide applicator

Draft animal pulled sprayer with

an 80 litre tank and a 5 m boom

Zamwipe

Animal-drawn sprayer

100 litrs animal-drawn sprayer

80 litres animal-drawn sprayer

Caution in use of chemicals

• Use protective clothing

• Spray at the right time of the day. Early morning or late

in the day when the wind is calm

• The right chemical rate(s) must be applied for

effectiveness

• Clean equipment thoroughly after use and wash your

hands

• Store chemicals in the right place as recommended by

the supplier

• Keep chemicals away from children

Equipment operation and use

Before any equipment is released for sale,

it will have been subject to thorough

testing by the manufacturer for

functionability and field performance

Functional testing

• Involves assessing design, construction

and performance against manufacturer’s

specifications

• Testing is usually done under workshop

conditions, lab or outdoor using well

established test procedures

Field testing

• Compliments functional tests by assessing performance in working

conditions

• Design aspects checked under field testing include:

– Functionability

– Ease of operation

– Adjustments

– Maintenance

– Safety features

– Seed placement

– Damage to seeds

– Trash handling etc

• Our concern is to check equipment

performance against the manufacturer’s

specifications and calibrate it for accuracy.

• Equipment should only be used as

specified by manufacturer

Thank You