Development and Evaluation of a Bullock Drawn Vegetable Transplanter

Abstract

Vegetables are the cheapest source of natural nutrients. To achieve true nutritional self- sufficiency, the production of vegetables in India must be doubled by 2050. This can be achieved through better cultivation practices. In India most of the vegetable crops are transplanted by traditional manual method; which is a tiresome and labour consuming process. Thus mechanization of vegetable transplanting is an immediate need. On the way of mechanization lies the marginal land holdings and poor socio- economic status of farmers. However the substantial bullock population paved way for developing a one row semi-automatic bullock drawn vegetable transplanter. The developed transplanter consisted of a furrow opener, a seedling drop tube, a pair of press wheels and a tray type seed metering mechanism. The metering mechanism of the developed transplanter was powered by the ground wheel. The machine was evaluated in the field condition with a pair of bullocks using bare root seedlings of brinjal and chilli of 10- 12% moisture content. From the field studies the average depth of planting brinjal and chilli was found to be 58- 60 cm. The plant stand and plant mortality after 21 days of transplanting was found to be 70.78-72.76 % and 21.66- 25.66 % respectively. The tray type metering mechanism maintained a plant to plant spacing of 525 mm. Draft developed by the vegetable transplanter was 21 kgf. The field capacity and field efficiency of the developed transplanter was 0.052 ha/h and 72.20% respectively