EFFECT OF LASER AND TRADITIONAL LEVELLING METHODS UTILIZATION ON PRODUCTIVITY OF RICE CROP UNDER LOCAL CONDITIONS

Abstract

The present study was conducted to study the effect of levelling method on the soil physical properties, quality and conductivity of rice crop, and field performance characteristics of leveller machine to determine the optimum and most suitable method of land levelling under local conditions. To achieve this goal, two different method of land levelling was used. The first method was LASER land levelling, but the second one was the traditional land levelling. Two different ploughing depths, two different planting method and three different leveller forward, speeds were studied. The leveller machine was mounted and operated by using tractor 90.13kW (120 hp). Levelling operation was performed on clay loam soil. The crop used was nee, Giza 177 variety. All the experiments of the present study were carried out at the research farm, Faculty of Agriculture Kafr El-Sheikh, Tanta University. The main results obtained from the experiments will be summarized under the following main points: a) Soil physical properties,

b) Field performance characteristics of leveller machine,

c) Yield components of rice crop.

5.1. Soil physical properties:

5.1.1. Effect of land levelling method, ploughing depth, and leveller forward speed on soil physical properties after levelling operation: 5.1.1.1. Bulk density, kg/cm3 :

For all the leveller forward speed and ploughing depths traditional levelling gave the minimum valueofthe bulk density, but the maximum value of bulk density was obtained at LASER levelling in both seasons. The leveller