Wheel Hoe Weeder (WHW) designed & developed by the Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani under Kerala Agricultural University has been granted a patent for 10 years. It’s a push-type, operated manually machine with a wheel and weeding blade for weeding.
This machine has been developed as a part of the doctoral/postgraduate research program of Seethal Rose Chacko, Dhanu Unnikrishnan, Krishnasree R K, and Anitrosa Innazent under the guidance of Sheeja K Raj, Jacob D, and Shalini Pillai P, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani.
About the Machine:
This machine can easily be operated by women for weeding of row planted crops in inter-row spaces. The long handle allows the operator to avoid bending over to pull out the weeds.
A user using the machinery with a weeding blade of sweep size 20 cm linked to it can weed an area of 0.015 ha (3.7 cents) in an hour in a loamy soil.
The machinery is operated by force exerted by the operator on the handlebar with grips (through pushing action), which lets the soil working part of the machinery i.e. weeding blade to penetrate deep into the soil, skim below the ground surface and cut or uproot the weeds in between the crop rows. Soil mass to a depth of 1.5 cm is manipulated during operation by the machinery.
The weeding blade is attached to the headpiece in the way that the wedding blade is slanted to an angle of 15 degrees to the horizontal whereas the headpiece remains vertically attached to the chassis. This design is prepared and incorporated so that the weeding blade can easily penetrate the soil with the least resistance.
Such innovative technologies in Agri- Sector can improve productivity and profitability, increase consumption of nutritious food, empower youth and women and ensure that agricultural practices are environmentally sustainable for future generations too.
