S. Y. ADEMILUYI1 and O. I. OLADELE2
1 National Center for Agricultural Mecahnisation, Ilorin, Nigeria
2 Department of Agricultural Economics, Education and Extension, Botswana College of Agriculture, University of Botswana, Gaborone
ADEMILUYI, S. Y. and O. I. OLADELE, 2008. Field performance of VST SHAKTI power tiller on sawah rice plots in Nigeria and Ghana. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 14: 517-522
The paper reports the Field performance of VST SHAKTI power tiller on sawah rice plots in Nigeria and Ghana. This is based on the fact that power tillers were re- introduced in Nigerian agriculture in 2001 by Watershed Initiatives Nigeria by importing few units for sawah rice production technology. The field performance evaluation of the model was carried out in different rice fields located at Shaba-Maliki and Ejeti village near Bida on a clayey loamy, sandy soil, under the guinea savannah ecology of Nigeria. The process was repeated in Biemo No1 and Adugyma in Ghana. These study sites are located about 40 kilometers northwest of Kumasi on the Kumasi - Sunyani main road in Ahafo Ano South District which is at the north-western part of the Ashanti Region. The result shows that 93% and 92% were recorded for field efficiency at Ejeti and Shaba-Maliki respectively. The difference in effective field capacity obtained at Shaba- Maliki (0.089 ha/hr) and Ejeti (0.047 ha/hr) was due to the variation in the average time of operation, the operational time at Ejeti (21.7 hr/ha) almost doubles that of Shaba-Maliki (13.15 hr/ha). In Ghana the field efficiency of VST SHAKTI 130D1 power tillers Biemso 1 and Adugyma were 80.52% and 82%. On the other hand, the effective field capacity are 0.15 ha/hr and 0.11 ha/hr for Biemo1 and Adugyma; while the average time of operation are 7.92 hr/ha and 8.9 hr/ha respectively for the locations in Ghana. The results of One way analysis of variance for field performance of power tillers in 4 locations show that average time of operations only Ejeti is significantly different from the 3 other locations, while Adugyma and AhabaMaliki, the effective field capacity differs significantly from Biemso and Ejeti. In terms of field efficiency, Biemso 1 is significantly different from Adugyma but not any difference between Ejeti and Shaba-Maliki. The means for slippage is highest in Ejeti and Shaba-Maliki though not significantly different between them but shows high significance difference between the locations in Ghana that is Biuemso 1 and Adugyma.