Development of Tractor Drawn Combined Tillage Implement

Soil tillage is one of the most vital and energy-intensive processes in agriculture, demanding significant time and resources. The cost as well as time of operation plays a critical role in choosing implement for tillage. Combined tillage involves using two or more different tillage tools simultaneously to prepare the soil, reducing the need for multiple field operations. This method was designed to save time, fuel, and energy while lowering operational costs. Additionally, it helps minimize soil compaction, labor expenses, and fuel usage by completing multiple tillage tasks in a single pass. Traditional tillage methods, on the other hand, are becoming more costly due to increased time, fuel, and equipment expenses. They also contribute to greater soil damage and compaction because of the repeated passes needed for seedbed preparation. Hence, the purpose of this study was to develop a tractor-drawn combined tillage implement. The developed implement comprised fine soil working tools with pulverizing roller by reducing the number of passes by combining two tillage implements. In a single run the combined tillage implement performs secondary tillage operations. The costs of operation of tractor-drawn combined tillage were 1707.43 Birr/hr whereas the break-even point, payback period, and benefit-cost ratio of the tractor-drawn combined tillage were 1,349.45 hr/yrs, 1.84 yrs, and 4.34, respectively.