Case2-February-2013
Identifying the exact origin of agriculture remains problematic because the transition from huntergatherer societies began thousands of years before the invention of writing. However, historians agree that the Indian agriculture began by 9500 BCE when men started domesticating crops and animals. Settled life soon followed with implements and techniques being developed for agriculture. A broken twig from a tree is the first known agricultural implement ever used by a man.
Ever since man started cultivating crops on his own, he started devising his own simple tools to make the tillage operations easy. The simplest tillage implement the wooden plough itself has undergone many changes in its design since its inception. As goes the saying “Necessity is the mother of all invention” farmers across the world keep innovating new implements based on their local needs. The farmers in Anjetti, Denganikottai taluk of Krishnagiri district, Tamilnadu is one such folk who have invented or borrowed knowledge of many simple implements to meet their rainfed farming needs. These farmers have adapted some of the practices from neighboring Karnataka state.
The major rainfed crops grown at present are ragi and
groundnut. Intercrops like red gram, field bean, etc., also
were grown along with them. Ranging from ploughing
and land preparation to thrashing of grains after harvest
these implements reduce their drudgery, saves time,
labour and money. India is a country were the farm
holdings are highly fragmented. Most of the small
and marginal farmers cannot afford to use the modern
agricultural machineries which incur high cost. However
the growing labour demand and also to improve the
efficiency of farming operations Anjetti farmers make
their own simple implements out of locally available
materials. The cost of these implements ranges between
र 300 to र 4,000 only.
Indigenous wooden plough used in Anjetti consists
of body, shaft pole, share and handle. Except for the share all the other parts are completely made of
wood. It is drawn with bullocks. Wooden plough is
in use Anjetti traditionally, as ploughing with wooden
plough increases the water holding capacity of the soil
and also helps in quick absorption of nutrients from
manure applied. Nowadays it is mainly used for sowing
intercrops in broadcasted finger millet or in groundnut
field along with another implement called Jattai. It cost
just र 1,000/ to make a wooden plough
Iron plough used in Anjetti is a simplified version of moldboard plough and is in use for the past three decades. Except for the shaft pole, the entire plough is made of iron. It has a longer life than wooden plough and can be retained for 15-20 years. Ploughing is quicker using iron plough than wooden plough (1 acre of land can be ploughed in an hour using iron plough, whereas only 0.75 acres can be covered using wooden plough) and weeds get buried and decomposed easily.
Iron plough is getting increasingly used for ploughing
operations than wooden plough. It costs र 3,000/- to
make an Iron plough. The wooden plough is not durable
in long run and needs constant repair and maintenance.
The iron plough can be used for 15 to 20 years with less
maintenance cost. However Iron plough is not without
demerits. Ploughing using Iron plough will make the
land shallow in the middle and hence requires frequent
leveling. Moreover Farm yard manure applied will not
be available for the immediate crop but for the next crop.
The moisture retention capacity of the soil will also be
lesser than ploughing with wooden plough.
Pallukai is a bullock drawn leveling implement. Used
by the farmers of Anjetti from the time immemorial.
The body, tines, handles and shaft pole of Pallukai is
completely made of wood and weighs around 30 kg.
Commonly used Pallukai’s have either eight or 10 tines
with a spacing of 10 cm between them. Fixed in a 90
to 120 cm wooden body with an optimum thickness to
hold the tines. The length of the tines varies from 35 to 40 cm. Pallukai is used in broadcasted finger millet
field immediately after sowing to enable the seed to
get optimum depth for germination. Pallukai is also
used before the seed drill for pulverizing the land and
leveling, which facilitates easy sowing using seed drill.
Pallukai hence loosens the soil, increase the depth of
sowing if seeds are broadcasted and also levels the land.
The cost of the one pallukkai is र 1,400/-
Thadukkai is a very simple implement which can be prepared in a quick time with bamboo and locally available weeds like Lantana camera. The stems of lantana camera or any other thorny weeds is fixed in two rows of a bamboo frame. The approximate dimension usually will be of 150 cm breath and 180 cm length. Thaddukai otthudhal is the operation which ensures perfect leveling of the land and also closer of broadcasted seeds with soil to facilitate easy germination. This operation also makes the soil texture loose and increase the water holding capacity of the soil.
Usually to give it more weight to facilitate leveling, stems of fresh leaves are loaded above the main frame. Thadukkai is also used without this weight after thinning of ragi crop using another implement called kuttai thindu for removing the thinned ragi crops and also other weeds from the field. This operation also straightens up the ragi seedlings that has lodged during the thinning operation. Since thadukkai is weighs only 10 kg or less it can be dragged easily manually or at times it is bullock drawn. It is no cost tool which just require locally available plants and labour for making
Sandy soils are often very loose and do not support germination. Traditionally the people of Anjetti used to run goats and sheeps over such soil to tighten the loose soil and facilitate germination of seeds. Deriving the knowledge from this operation, farmers of Anjetti devised Thimmi. Thimmi is made of two long wooden spindles in which goat/sheep foot like structure is carved. Rolling Thimmi over the land not only tightens the soil, but also kills the root grubs which damages the finger millet seedlings while germination. However nowadays, its usage is limited because of high operational expenditure.
Bullock drawn seed drill is widely used by the farmers
of Anjetti for sowing finger millet, the technology
being adapted from Karnataka. A seed drill is a sowing
device that precisely positions seeds in the soil and
then covers them. The commonly used seed drill has a
hopper connected with four to six iron or plastic pipes,
which in turn are attached to a main wooden body. The
wooden body has four to six bamboo stick with holes
through which seeds gets placed in the soil at 20 cm
distance. At both ends of the wooden body bamboo
sticks without holes is fixed which supports to adjust
the depth of sowing. Seed drill ensures line sowing, to
maintain optimum plant population, facilitates other
intercultural operations like thinning, weeding and
earthling up operations. All this helps the farmer to save
labor, time and money apart from increased productivity.
Seed drill can be made locally by incurring a expense
of र 3,500/ to 4,000/-
| S.No | Particulars | Broad casting | Line sowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seed requirement | 12 kg /acre | 6 kg/ acre |
| 2 | Labour required | 3 labour /acre | 5 labour /acre |
| 3 | Implements used at the time of sowing | Iron plough, pallukkai and jattai and thatukkai | Pallukkai, seed drill, jattai and thatukkai used |
| 4 | Area cover per day | 4 acre | 4 acre |
| 5 | Thinning and weeding | By hand 10 to 12 women labour is required to complete the operation one day | Done using 6 chipi thindu twice criss crossing the field. 2 chipi thindu is used for earthling up. Saves labour and time |
| 6 | Yield | 5 quintal /acre | 8 quintal per acre |
| 7 | Drought | Susceptible for drought because seeds are at different depth. Moisture stress will affect the growth | Tolerant to drought because seeds are in uniform depth (2 to2.5 inch depth) so with stand even drought. |
| 8 | Rain during harvest | Lodging happens even with less rain fall and wind during harvest | Lodging is not happened except very heavy rain fall |
Jattai is a single line seed drill which was in use even before fifty years in Anjetti and has been widely used before the modern seed drill came to use. Jattai is funnel like hopper at the top attached to a tubular bamboo pole. For sowing intercrops like red gram, field bean, caster, cowpea, sorghum and niger in finger millet field or for sowing intercrops in groundnut fields, Jattai is tied two feet behind the wooden plough. While the wooden plough makes a furrow while ploughing, intercrop is sown in the furrows using this jattai and the seed get closed by a wooden plank attached to jattai with a rope which gets dragged along the soil. So in a single operation both ploughing and sowing operations gets completed.
Ekkunttai is a weeding implement and is in use in Anjetti for more than four decades. The body, handle and the shaft pole of Ekkunttai are made up of wood and while the tines are made up of iron. Usually four or six tines of 50 cm length are fixed in the wooden body with spacing of 10 cm between them. It is used for removing deep weeds from soil during first ploughing and also for first weeding in groundnut crop. If 10 women labors are needed to weed one acre of land normally, if this weeder is used only four women labors are sufficient thereby reducing the weeding cost very much.
Vaal Ekkuttai or Blade harrow is a modified version of Ekkuttai which can be made using body of Ekkuttai and by removing the two tines in the middle. And then a long blade like iron plate is attached at the end of the two tines by welding or with nuts and bolts. Vaal ekkuttai is used if weeds are seen more in the field after ploughing, but before sowing of ragi seeds. After ploughing some weeds may germinate using existing moisture and Vaal ekkuttai is used for removing such young weeds. After weeding with Vaal ekkuttai, Pallukai is also used after which follows the usage of seed drill.
Kutta thindu resembles Ekkuttai except that the tines here are very closely spaced and their length is shorter than in ekkuttai. However the tines are much flat at the end. The number of tines ranges from two to six and based on this number their usage also varies. Kuttai thindu with six tines and four tines were used in line sown finger millet after 15 days of sowing.
The implement is used to maintain optimum ragi population in the field by removing the excess seedlings. The implement is run crisscrossing the field which ensures thinning and also weeding. Two acres of land can be thinned and weeded in a day using this kutta thindu
The Kuttai thindu with two tines on other hand is used for earthing up operation in groundnut and finger millet crop one month after sowing. One acre of field can be covered in four hours with only two men laborers. On the other hand to manually weed one acre of groundnut in a day, 15 to 20 women laborers are required and the costs three times more.
Kundu ottuthal is an age old practice of anchetty for thrashing finger millet with one pair of bullock. While doing this operation finger millet is separated easily from stalk. Per day 100 sumai (bundles) will be thrashed. For separation of straw and finger millet is easy in this practice. Now a days tractor and paddy thrasher also used for thrashing finger millet.
Using tractor and paddy thrasher become quick but cleaning will take more time because of more of dust will be formed during the operation. Anther demerit when compared to stone kundu is the straw does not like by cattle due to leaf of the straw become powder without leaf so cattle is not liking the straw. The stone kundu is made during 3 to 4 generations ago so cost is not known by the farmer.