Inter-row Hand Weeders

Abstract

The project’s objective was to develop an inter-row hand weeder for controlling young weeds in crop fields. Iterative work was carried out comprising development, testing, and improvement of a series of hand weeders. The first prototype was hand weeder 1 (spikes and rubber band), subsequent improvements resulted in hand weeder 2 (spikes and rubber band; with wheel), hand weeder 3 (blade and rubber band; with wheel), hand weeder 4 (blade and rake; with wheel) and eventually hand weeder 5 (blade and blade; with wheel). Comparing to hand hoes, it took less time for all hand weeders to weed out the equivalent area; and users did not get fatigued as much as using hand hoes. Spiked hand weeders did not work well with grown up weeds, but were acceptable for weed seedlings; whereas bladed hand weeders performed equally good compared to hand hoes. Among all five hand weeders, model 5 seemed to be the most appropriate since it worked well and could be made locally with relatively low cost.