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Thesis

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2015 - 20162
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Subject: Farm Machinery and Power Engineering × End date: 2018 × Start date: 2013 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development, Testing and Evaluation of Inclined Plate Planter for Pelleted Vegetable Seed
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2016) Gautam, Anand; Khurana, Rohinish
    Onion (Allium cepa L.), Carrot (Daucus carota L.) and Radish (Raphanus sativus) are important vegetable crop grown throughout the country. Onion, carrot and radish can be grown by direct seeding method which can help in saving labour. Small and irregular shaped seeds lead to variation and placement of the seeds when sown using existing planters. Seed pelleting was done in the ratio of 1:1 to 1:3 so that the physical properties of the seeds are altered to be applicable for use with an inclined plate planter. An inclined plate planter was developed for pelleted seeds. Preliminary evaluation of the developed planter was done in the laboratory for the treated seeds (S1, S2 and S3) using different developed seed plates having 18, 24 and 30 grooves at forward speeds of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 km/h. Performance was evaluated on the basis of average spacing, missing index, multiple index and quality of feed index. Based on average seed spacing and index value the optimum combination of direct sowing of onion, carrot and radish was found for S3 seed with 24 groove plate at 2.0 km/h forward speed and 45o inclination angle of plate. Field evaluation of the machine was done on the basis of these selected parameters s in the laboratory evaluation. The machine was used to plant onion, carrot and radish S3 seeds on 100 cm wide beds. The yields observed were 478.80 q/ha, 252.00 q/ha and 322.60 q/ha for onion, carrot and radish respectively. Field capacity of the machine was found 0.164 ha/h and the fuel consumption during the sowing operation was 4.5 l/h. The cost saving in estimation were 94.5and 49.5 percent for onion and carrot, radish crop.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF TRACTOR OPERATED SEEDER FOR WHEAT AS RELAY CROP IN COTTON
    (PUNJAB AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY LUDHIANA, 2015) Manpreet, Singh; Mahal, Jaskarn Singh
    Wheat planting after cotton is usually delayed due to late cotton picking and time needed for seedbed preparation, resulting in low wheat yield. Few farmers sow wheat through broadcasting in standing cotton for timely sowing but on a small scale. This methodology has also limitations of poor germination and low fertilizer use efficiency. Therefore, to study feasibility of relay seeding of wheat in cotton, a prototype of high clearance platform (110 cm from ground) for tractor was developed to facilitate the movement of tractor in standing cotton. Experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of newly developed Relay Seeders (RS) attached to high clearance four-wheel tractor for seeding wheat in standing cotton planted at row spacing of 67.5 cm and 101.0 cm. Replicated field experiment included two cotton hybrids having different canopy cover (RCH 776 and MRC 7017), two RS for different row spacing and three types of furrow openers (strip till rotor-STR, zero till double disc-ZTDD and zero till tine-ZTT). The RS with double disc opener vis-à-vis conventional till wheat (CTW) were also evaluated on five farmers’ fields. The forward speed of travel of ZTDD openers was 9.3% and 16.6% higher than the speed with STR and ZTT openers respectively. STR openers consumed more fuel (12.36 L ha-1) than ZTT (8.57 L ha-1) and ZTDD openers (9.15 L ha-1). Number of cotton bolls detached from plants due to operation of tractor mounted RS was significantly lower in 101.0 cm cotton row spacing compared with 67.5 cm row spacing. Overall loss of cotton balls due to the movement of tractor and RS was under 2%. Relay planting of wheat using high clearance tractor allowed one additional boll picking leading to increase in seed cotton yield by about 12% compared with conventional crop. Cotton genotypes and relay seeders had no effect on wheat emergence and wheat yield. Relay seeders with STR and ZTDD furrow openers performed better in terms of wheat emergence and grain yield compared to ZTT openers. Wheat sowing using RS was advanced by 31 days, which increased grain yield by 18.8% as compared with CTW. Net returns from CW system with relay seeding of wheat were Indian Rs. 19,282 to 26,332 per ha higher as compared with conventional CW system. Results from on-farm participatory trials revealed that wheat yield under relay seeding on average increased by 6.4% compared to CTW.