Evaluation of three soil preparation technologies for small-scale producers

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate the quality of soil preparation using three tillage technologies, contributing to the selection of viable alternatives for small-scale family farming. Three soil preparation variants were evaluated: manual tillage with a crumbling spade, and mechanized tillage with a power tiller, one variant with a single pass of a moldboard plow and another with a rotary tiller, and the other option with only a rotary tiller. The performance of the technologies and the quality of soil preparation were determined. For the mechanized technologies, fuel consumption was also measured. The experimental research was conducted on sandy loam soil with a relative humidity of 19.78% and a bulk density of 1.38 g/cm³, with vegetative residue cover between 0.66 and 2.26 kg/m². The results showed that the treatment involving tillage with the spade exhibited better work quality compared to the other two technologies, with a tillage depth of 17.94 cm, an average clod size of 2.85 mm, and post-tillage ridge differences of 6.95 cm; however, it achieved the lowest operational yield at 41.7 workdays/ha.