Pasali SRI motorized weeder
It was almost a year of design and development. Pasali developed various prototypes from the manual rotary weeder to motorized and battery operated with the consultation of farmers. And this month, the efficient motorized weeder is finally developed.
Mr. Rafael Anim, technical center staff, demonstrate the weeder.
Management of weeds is really one of the problems SRI Farmer’s encounters on their farming. Without submerging the rice plants, weeds around the plants increase. Rather than using synthetic chemicals to eliminate them, the rotary weeder uproots and leaves them on the field. The uprooted weeds become nutrients in the soil. The weeder also aerates the soil, allowing oxygen needed in the growth of the plants to flow through. This increased yields, producing more tillers, enlarges the panicle size, increases the weight of the grains and number of grains per panicle. Thus farmers believed this fact since for them manual weeding is laborious, time consuming and it is costly to hire someone to weed on their farm. That’s why Farmers are very enthusiastic about this new weeder. “This is it”, they say.
Farmer Alvaro Casuga weeding using the new weeder
This motorized weeder is one horsepower (HP) and does three rows at a time. It is light and easy to operate, making it possible even for women to work with. During the test, it took two weeders to do a hectare of rice in just five hours. Manual weeding takes about 25 days solo work to finish one hectare. It is really a great help to farmers.
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