The study aims to determine the economic and environmental performace of Straw Baler for collection of rice residue generated after mechanical harvesting by combine harvester. Increased mechanization, particularly use of combine, declining number of livestock, long period required for composting and no economically viable alternate use of crop residues are some of the reasons for open field burning of crop residue after harvesting of paddy crop for cleaning of field to sow wheat crop without chocking the conventional zero-till machine in field. This study was conducted at KVK, Rohtas farm Dhangain in year 2013-14 with baler Model 338 of John Deere make, tractor of Zetor model and hydraulic trailer. Straw baler facilitated in collection of paddy straw of 43.6 quintal/ha at cost of just Rs. 1650, which promotes animal rearing, compost/vermicompost production, power generation, bio-gas production, bio-char production, mushroom production, ehtenoal production, mulching in high value crops for stress mitigation. Promotion of straw baler may facilitates in setting up of fodder bank at large scale which may be used in case of natural extemities i.e. flood or drought for feeding animal population.

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The essence of agricultural development is to improve both individual farm household welfare and in the aggregate, achieve desirable economic and social impacts. Despite the availability of literature on the farm level impact of DSR, few studies have attempted to measure the aggregate effects of adoption of DSR at the state level. A survey was conducted during 2015, comprising 150 randomly selected farmers covering three major direct seeded rice districts viz., Sri Muktsar Sahib, Bathinda and Kapurthala of Punjab state of India to understand the farm level and aggregate economic impact of DSR in Punjab. The results showed that the adoption of DSR has reduced the cost of cultivation by about 29% on an average. At the aggregate level, potential benefits from the adoption of DSR are substantial. The survey results reveal that adoption of DSR has resulted in lowering cost of cultivation of rice by Rs. 14,615/-per hectare over the transplanting method. The aggregate monetary benefits in terms of savings in cost of cultivation by adoption of DSR to the adopter farmers in Punjab is estimated to the tune of Rs.730,750,000 for the year 2015. The findings confirm the positive impacts of DSR and the results support promoting DSR as a strategy to enhance profitability of farmers and also as a water saving technology in the face of depleting water resources for agriculture in general and rice in particular.

Air pollution from crop residue burning in India is an environmental menace that makes headlines every year – is a major ill effect of farm mechanization. Keeping the severity of the problem in view, KVK, Rohtas introduced happy seeder in Rabi 2016-17 with objective to assess its suitability for crop residue management. The intensively cultivated irrigated rice–wheat area is fundamental to employment, income and livelihoods for about three million population of the district. Happy seeder of Kamboj make, Zero-till machine of National make and local made seed drill were used for comparative study of residue management. Seed drill was used where rice residue were completely burned before sowing. Zero-till machine was used where about 50% residue was remais after buring. The significant change were observed in plant population, bundel weight and grain yield in these trials with respect to farmers practice. It is concluded that happy seeder not only improves the farmers income but also conserve the most of the production inputs. Reduction in green house gass emission, nutrient recycling, soil health improvemnt are added advantages of happy seeder technology.

Zero Quality Control (ZQC) is a quality control approach for achieving zero defects. ZQC is based on the principle that defects are prevented by controlling the performance of a process so that it cannot produce defects, even when a mistake is made by the machine or a human operator. This is done by combining four basic elements 1 : i)source inspection ii) 100 percent inspection iii) immediate feedback and iv) use of poka-yoke (mistake-proofing) devices. ZQC is widely gaining popularity in the industry. It is well established in Japan and its practice is catching on in USA. At the department of mechanical and manufacturing engineering technology at the University of North Texas, we strongly feel that this important tool needs to be addressed in our Quality Control class. A plan has been made to cater to this desire, and strategies have been made to incorporate it in other classes as well.