Abstract
ABSTRACTDry direct-seeded rice is widely practiced in drought-prone environments in tropical Asia where mechanized options for crop establishment are in great demand. The objective of this study is to identify the suitable design of a hand tractor-mounted multigrain seed drill under biophysical conditions in the Philippines. The prototype was newly designed and tested under field conditions in three provinces in 2015 and 2016. The results suggested that the prototype with tined furrow openers and an inclined circular seed plate in the hopper for seed metering driven by the ground wheel through the combination of chain and sprocket produced rice grain yield similar to the crop established from broadcasting. Field experiments also confirmed that the seed drill has a capacity of over 2 ha day−1 for rice and over 3 ha day−1 for mung bean, and thus, the prototype appears promising for rainfed lowlands in the Philippines.Abbreviations: BS: broadcast seeding; FS: furrow seeding; IRRI: International Rice Research Institute; MSD: Multigrain seed drill; PhilRice: Philippine Rice Research Institute
Highlights
Rainfed lowlands in the Philippines have a total of 1.49 million ha, accounting for 36% of the country’s total rice area
Design and evaluation of prototypes of seed drill mounted on two-wheel tractors
The average forward speed was found at 3.50 km h−1, and the seed drill had a theoretical field capacity of 2.24 ha day−1 for rice and 3.36 ha day−1 for mung bean and maize
Summary
Rainfed lowlands in the Philippines have a total of 1.49 million ha, accounting for 36% of the country’s total rice area. Rice is the only crop that can be well grown during wet seasons due to waterlogging in lowland fields. Dryland crops such as maize and mung bean are often grown during dry seasons depending on the availability of supplemental irrigation. Unreliable water supply often causes delay in transplanting and resultant use of aged seedlings causes huge yield losses in rainfed lowlands (Haefele et al, 2016). To address the risk of crop failure due to drought, dry direct seeding technology spreads in the water-scarce rice areas (Sansen et al, in press). Some farmers manually dibble or sow seeds on the shallow ditches to secure crop establishment. On the other hand, broadcast dry seeds to save labor required for sowing despite risk of poor establishment (Kato & Katsura, 2014; Ohno et al, 2018)
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