Development of Zero-till Planter for North Eastern Hilly Region of India

Abstract

The planter was designed based on the matching power source of the tractor besides considering the limitation posed by the small size hill farms. Several designs of planters operated by various sources of power are available worldwide. Due to very less (0.01-0.03 ha h-1) work rate of animal drawn planters, farmers of north- eastern hilly (NEH) region of India are reluctant to use them. The available tractor drawn planters are mostly designed for cereal crops and there is paucity of their performance evaluation for pulses and oilseeds. Moreover, they are large in size (11-13 tynes) making them unsuitable for narrow terraces and valley lands prevalent in NEH region. The seed metering system was designed based on the physical and mechanical properties of mustard seeds. Inverted T – type furrow openers were used as suggested by various researchers for zero till sowing. Hopper was designed to hold 8-10 kg mustard seeds.The results of the field performanceevaluation of the planter to plant mustard indicated that the theoretical field capacity, effective field capacity and field efficiency of the zero-till mustard planter were 0.479 ha h-1, 0.363 ha h-1 and 75.87% respectively. Seed rate for planting of mustard was 2.1 kg ha-1. The average plant emergence after 20 days of planting was found to be 92%.