Design, Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of a Motorized 2 – Row Soybean Planter for Small Scale Farmers in Katsina State

Abstract

A 2 – row soybean planter has been fabricated according the design specifications and field performance of the planter was evaluated on 0.5 ha (500 m2) plot of land on the college farm of Federal College of Education, Katsina. Five (5) levels of speed of operation (0.42 m/s, 0.56 m/s, 0.69 m/s, 0.83 m/s and 0.97 m/s) were used to evaluate performance of the fabricated planter. Results of performance evaluation of the fabricated planter reveal that 0.83 m/s speed of operation produces planting parameters with values that are very close to the recommended planting parameters of soybean TGX 1448 – 2E. Thus, indicating that 0.83 m/s is the best speed of operation of the fabricated planter with mean value of 24.72 kg/h seeding rate, 98.14 % uniformity of spacing, 78.05 % planting efficiency and 7 broken seeds per 100 seeds. The analysis of variance at P > 0.05 reveals that speed of operation has a positive effect on the seeding rate and field capacity; a negative effect on planting efficiency of the fabricated 2 – row soybean planter. Thus, seeding rate and field capacity increases with increasing speed while the planting efficiency decreases with increasing speed of operation. Functional performance test results indicate a significant relationship of the speed of operation with seeding rate, field capacity and planting efficiency of the planter where as uniformity of spacing and percentage damaged seeds are relatively un affected by the speed of operation of the planter.