CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

2.1 Conceptual Literature

The following information and methods were gathered from different sources like
certain publications and the World Wide Web. Concept, ideas and designs taken from these
documents serve as the basis for the core of the conceptual model of the study.

2.1.1 Spermatophytes

The spermatophytes, which means "seed plants", are some of the most important
organisms on Earth. Life on land as we know it is shaped largely by the activities of seed
plants. Soils, forests, and food are three of the most apparent products of this group.

Seed-producing plants are probably the most familiar plants to most people, unlike
mosses, liverworts, horsetails, and most other seedless plants which are overlooked
because of their size or inconspicuous appearance. Many seed plants are large or showy.
Conifers are seed plants; they include pines, firs, yew, redwood, and many other large trees.
The other major group of seed-plants are the flowering plants, including plants whose
flowers are showy, but also many plants with reduced flowers, such as the oaks, grasses,
and palms.

2.1.2 History of Farming

People did not farm as a major way of getting food until around 12,000 BC. About
that time, there was a climate change that made more food plants grow than before.
Everybody got more to eat with less work than earlier hunters and gatherers and fishers.
Some of these people decided to settle down in one spot and farm their food, instead of
traveling around picking wild food. People invented farming in different places: in West
Asia about 12,000 BC, in Africa about 10,000 BC, in South America about 8000 BC, in
China about 6000 BC. From there farming spread (sometimes as a result of farmers
conquering their neighbors) to Europe (about 7000 BC, reaching northern Europe about
4500 BC), to Sudan (about 4000 BC), and to Native Americans (about 1 AD).

In West Asia, Africa and Europe, people planted first figs, and then grains: wheat,
barley, millet, sorghum, oats and rye, and legumes like peas, lentils, and chickpeas. In
South America, it was potatoes, corn, squash, sweet potatoes, beans, yuca root and peanuts.
In China, farmers planted millet and rice and soybeans. But people didn't just plant food:
they also grew cotton, flax, and hemp for clothing, and medicines like coca and coffee.

Early farmers didn't use many tools to help them. They poked holes in the ground
with sticks to plant seeds in, they pulled weeds by hand, and they harvested using their bare
hands. Women probably did most of this work. By around 3000 BC, though, people began
to build dams and dig irrigation canals to bring water to places where it didn't rain enough
to grow crops. West Asian farmers started to use plows pulled by oxen, and in Africa people
started to use plows pulled by donkeys, to dig up the ground for planting, and flint sickles
(bone with little flint triangles set into them to make them into a kind of wedge) to cut the
grain for harvesting. Men, with their strong arms, now did most of the plowing and
harvesting, while women did the weeding in between. Farming had a tendency to get
people into debt, and there were a lot of arguments about this debt.

By the time of the Roman Empire, farmers had more efficient tools: they had iron
tips on their plows, and rich estates had sharp-toothed harvesters that could cut the grain
as they drove through the fields. Some poorer peasants began to use bronze or iron sickles,
though many who were really poor still used the cheaper flint ones. Water mills in China,
Central Asia, Europe, and North Africa saved women the hard work of grinding grain into
flour, and sharp hoes made weeding easier. Big dams and irrigation meant that some of the
most productive places on earth were places where it was very sunny and almost never
rained - Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, and Central Asia.

The Middle Ages brought more new technologies to farming, especially the harrow,
which turned over the dirt as you plowed. In Europe, people started to use three-crop
rotation, which was a more efficient use of land. At the same time, people started to grow
a lot of crops in new places: farmers started to grow sugar and cotton in West Asia, Egypt,
and China, and rice in Europe.

When European traders reached North and South America in the late 1400s AD,
they also brought many crops back and forth. Traders brought rice, sugar, and coffee from
Eurasia and Africa to the Americas. They brought coca, chocolate, sweet potatoes, peanuts,
yuca root, tomatoes, chili peppers, and potatoes from the Americas to Asia and Africa. But
still most people had to work on farms in order to grow enough food for everybody to eat.
Plus, people started to change their clothes more, and more people had to work growing
cotton for clothing. Most of these people were very poor: in the 1800s AD, many of them
were enslaved.
Finally, in the 1800s AD, the invention of the internal combustion engine made it
possible to give up farm animals for gas-powered tractors and harvesters. These big,
powerful machines replaced many plowmen and harvesters as well as animals. By the mid-
1900s, only a tiny number of people worked on farms in the United States, and today,
across the whole world, less than half the people work on farms growing food or cotton for
clothing.

2.1.3 Plant Cultivation Process

2.1.3.1 Crop Selection

a. Comparative pricing of different crops. For some crops government

releases prices of the crop at the time of seeding.
b. Market demand and sale potential of the crop.
c. Budget required for the cultivation of each crop.
d. Feasibility of the crop considering climate and quality of land.
e. Crop productivity compared with other alternatives.

2.1.3.2 Land Preparation

 a. Effects of any disease from the previous cultivation and steps needed to
minimize this impact.
b. Fertilizers needed to bring land to its normal fertility depending upon the
previous crops and fertilizer used.
c. Layout and design of the field with respect to crop for efficient irrigation.
d. Latest techniques for leveling the fields and their cost.

2.1.3.3 Seed Selection

a. Price and quantity needed per acre

b. Average yield and sprout to sown ratio.
c. Suitability to particular area and climate.
d. Water requirement.
e. Resistance to diseases.
f. Location of distribution offices for the seed.

2.1.3.4 Seed Sowing

a. Appropriate time to sow the seed.

b. Optimal weather conditions at sowing time.
c. Best method for the sowing of seeds.
d. Seed sowing depth.

2.1.3.5 Irrigation

a. Critical time for irrigation.

b. Amount of water to be given to the plants.
c. Frequency of irrigation.
 2.1.3.6 Crop Growth

a. Number of plants per unit of area. At times more than optimum number of
seeds sprouts are planted in a given area. Farmers must reduce density for
healthy growth of plants.
b. Average growth rate of the crop in normal conditions.
c. Comparison of crop growth rate, leaf size, crop color etc. with expected
growth for given conditions and input.
d. Interventions needed to maintain expected growth.
e. Frequency, quantity and method for fertilization.
f. Proper time, frequency and method for plowing.
g. Proper time, frequency and method for weeding.
h. Expected pest and virus attacks, symptoms of such attacks, precautionary
measure that can be taken in advance to avoid these attacks, immediate
actions including pesticide to be used to kill pests and viruses, quantity of
pesticide to be used per acre, most effective method for pesticide spray,
avoid health issues related to pesticide spray.

2.1.3.7 Harvesting

a. Proper time and method for harvesting.

b. Comparative market rates.
c. Proper crop storage.
d. Cost of transportation.

2.1.4 Hoeing Process

2.1.4.1 Traditional Hoeing

 A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural and horticultural hand tool
used to shape soil, remove weeds, clear soil, and harvest root crops. Shaping the
soil includes piling soil around the base of plants (hilling), digging narrow furrows
(drills) and shallow trenches for planting seeds or bulbs. Weeding with a hoe
includes agitating the surface of the soil or cutting foliage from roots, and clearing
soil of old roots and crop residues. Hoes for digging and moving soil are used to
harvest root crops such as potatoes.
2.1.4.2 Rotary Hoeing

The rotary hoe is the specific attachment for working the soil in
preparation for seeding, for burying vegetable residues, eliminating weeds or for
weeding between rows in vegetable crops and floriculture. An optional rotary hoe
travel wheel can be fitted, which comes in handy when transferring the two-wheel
tractor because by keeping the rotary hoe lifted off the ground, moving it becomes
easier and less arduous.

Rotary hoes are versatile tillage tools that can be used to accomplish many
tasks. The rotary hoe can decrease soil crusting and enhance crop emergence. In
addition, it causes little soil compaction. With severe rain, the potential for soil
crusting is high on fine-textured soil after it dries. Combating soil crusts quickly is
one way to prevent a poor stand.

The rotary hoe can be used to control weeds that emerge shortly after
planting when rainfall has not been sufficient to activate pre-emergence herbicides.
The rotary hoe causes very little disturbance of crop residue, thereby enhancing
infiltration and preventing erosion.
 Keep the tractor speed in the 8-10-mph range. Run with the rows. Driving
on top of seed (especially corn) after its planted makes it more difficult for it to
emerge. Work at a shallow depth--just enough to flip the weeds out of the soil (or
break the crust). In fields with high levels of surface residue cover, rotary hoe
wheels should be self-cleaning to avoid dragging residue.

Rotary hoes bury little or no crop residue, instead they gently flip soil and
residue at the surface. Not all of them, however, handle residue well. Older models
(more than 20 years old) usually don't handle heavy cornstalks or bunched-up
soybean stubble well. Wheels on most newer hoes are spaced for self-cleaning with
tines from adjacent wheels helping to dislodge stalks.

Reduce the weight of the tractor. Use the smallest tractor that can do the job
(hoes can be operated with low horsepower tractors). Also, consider removing fluid
from tires, front wafer weights (if steering can be maintained with a rear-mounted
hoe), and wheel weights to further reduce soil compaction. Rotary hoes have little
or no impact on compaction.

Although a gentle rain would be welcome at seeding, an intense downpour

could lead to soil crusting. When rains break down soil aggregates at the soil
surface, raindrop impacts create a massive, structureless layer that, with rapid
drying, cements into a hard layer. Soil crusts that form above seed may cause
significant germination failure. Seedlings trapped under a crust grow until the seed
runs out of stored energy.

2.1.5 Chain Drives

 Chain drive is a way of transmitting mechanical power from one place to another.
It is often used to convey power to the wheels of a vehicle, particularly bicycles and
motorcycles. It is also used in a wide variety of machines besides vehicles.

Most often, the power is conveyed by a roller chain, known as the drive chain or
transmission chain, passing over a sprocket gear, with the teeth of the gear meshing with
the holes in the links of the chain. The gear is turned, and this pulls the chain putting
mechanical force into the system. Another type of drive chain is the Morse chain,
invented by the Morse Chain Company of Ithaca, New York, United States. This has
inverted teeth.[2]

Sometimes the power is output by simply rotating the chain, which can be used to
lift or drag objects. In other situations, a second gear is placed and the power is recovered
by attaching shafts or hubs to this gear. Though drive chains are often simple oval loops,
they can also go around corners by placing more than two gears along the chain; gears
that do not put power into the system or transmit it out are generally known as idler-
wheels. By varying the diameter of the input and output gears with respect to each other,
the gear ratio can be altered.