Design and development of groundnut planter for power weeder

Abstract

Groundnut is the sixth most important oilseed crop in the world. The major groundnut producing countries in the world are India, China, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Burma and the United States of America. It contains 48-50% oil and 26-28% protein, and is a rich source of dietary fiber, minerals, and vitamins. India stands second in the production of groundnut. Groundnut is grown on Million hectares worldwide with a total production of 35.367 Million metric tonnes in 2011-2012. India is a world leader in groundnut farming in terms of production area, with 5.95 million hectare and with a yield of 7.5 million tonnes in the year 2011 (Dept. of Agriculture, India). The country has exported 535,637.38 MT of the groundnut to the world for the worth of 4 billion USD during the year 2012-13. The planting operation is one of the most important cultural practices associated with crop production. Increases in crop yield, cropping reliability, cropping fre-quency and crop returns all depend on the uniform and timely establishment of optimum plant populations. A seed-cum-fertilizer should be developed for a power weeder to minimize the cost of operation. The basic idea for mounting of groundnut planter to the power weeder is "the negative draft generation of the power weeder helps to reduce the positive draft requirement of groundnut planter". The row to row spacing was also measured at different locations; it was observed that 30 cm spacing between two rows throughout the field. The depth and width of furrow opener was measured under field condition. It was observed that, the average width and depth of furrow opener was 10 cm and 5 cm respectively for entire row. Developed power weeder drawn groundnut planter consists of one ground wheels of diameter 38.12 cm, three plates provided mounted on the rotating shaft. The entire attachment was fixed on the frame. Ground wheel rotates the power transmit with the suitable gears and chain and rotate metering unit (3 plates) with attached spoons. Total length of the machine 1.2 m and width is 90 cm.