Tractor Drawn Modular Planter for Gram-A Performance Study

Abstract

The performance of the tractor drawn modular planter was evaluated in laboratory as well as in fi eld conditions. It consists of 7 rows, row to row spacing was kept 20 cm, working effi ciency was 65%, draft required was 2000 N, working capacity was 0.47 ha/h, fuel consumption was 3.5 l/h, operating cost was 740 Rs/h and was operated at 4.0 km/h. The fi eld trial was conducted at etawah college farm in well-prepared fi eld after rice cultivation. The type of soil was loamy, having initial moisture content of 14.7%. The bulk density of experimental plot after seedbed preparation was 1.53 g/cm3 . Its fi eld capacity was 0.47 ha/h, while 0.42 ha/h by multi-crop seed cum ferti drill and 0.152 ha/h by broadcasting. The average loss of seed due to abrasion in metering mechanism of modular planter was 0.73%, which is less than 1.63% of multi-crop seed cum ferti drill. The average plant population was 23.6plants/m2 for modular planter, which were 23.6% higher than plant population by multi-crop seed cum ferti drill and 37% by broadcasting method. The average yield of the plots shown by modular planter was 28.5 q/ha while the average yield of multi-crop seed cum ferti drill was 26.5q/ha and the average yield of broadcasting was 21q/ha. The seed required by modular planter was 90 kg/ha and by multi-crop seed cum ferti drill was 100 kg/ha and by broadcasting was 120 kg/ha. The time requirement by the modular planter is 2.06 h/ha, which is less than 2.7h/ha by multi crop seed cum ferti drill and 4.7 h/ha by the broadcasting. There was 16.54 % labor saving while using modular planter with respect to the broadcasting method and 4.04% labor saving while using multi crop seed cum ferti drill.