Happy Seeder - A Conservation Agriculture Technology for Managing Rice Residue for Central Punjab Conditions

Field experiments on Happy seeder were conducted during 2009-10 and 2010-11 in farmer participatory research mode at different locations in the district Fatehgarh Sahib. The field experiments were conducted on 9 different locations to evaluate the operational performance of Happy seeder machine in context of heavy soils of district Fatehgarh Sahib, the effect of Happy seeder on wheat yield in heavy soils and to work out the economics of Happy Seeder as compared to farmer's practice. The study reveled that, the average reduction in weed count in happy seeder plots was 28% compared to conventional sown wheat. Wheat yield during these two years in 9 experiments was varied from 35.0 - 56.25 q/ha and 31.75 - 50.75 q/ha for Happy seeder and conventional seed drill plots, respectively with an average increase in yield of 8.84 % in Happy seeder plots.