DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MECHANICAL TRANSPLANTER FOR ONION SEEDLINGS
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Date
2016
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DIVISION OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING INDIAN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE NEW DELHI
Abstract
Onion (Allium cepa L.) is the most important vegetable crop grown and consumed
all over the country. During 2014-2015, a total of 18.74 million tons of bulbs were
produced from an area of 1.15 million hectares in India (NHRDF, 2014). In India, onion
is grown in kharif, late kharif and rabi seasons. Traditionally, onion nurseries are prepared
and then transplanting is done manually. Manual transplanting on a large commercial
scale is labor intensive and expensive. Sometimes delay in transplanting occurs due to
high labour requirement and shortage of labour during peak transplanting seasons.
Besides the quantum of labour, manual transplanting involves considerable drudgery and
human discomfort. Rising labor costs and uncertainty of labor availability has forced
some growers to look at the option of mechanical transplanting. Since area under onion
crop is increasing and also expected to increase in years to come. In addition to this,
morphologically being delicate, perishable and with higher seedling mortality, onion crop
was selected to develop a seedling transplanter. In present situation, indigenously
developed onion seedling transplanters are not available in India. In view of above
investigation, the present study was undertaken to design and develop a tractor operated
semiautomatic onion transplanter to mechanize onion transplanting operation.
The physical properties of 50, 60 and 70 days old onion seedlings relevant for the
design of metering mechanism and prototype transplanting machine were determined. An
experimental plug and finger type transplanting mechanisms were designed and
fabricated. Soil bin studies were conducted on experimental transplanting mechanisms to
study the effect of seedling parameters ie. age of seedlings and machine parameters
(speed of operation, height of seedling drop, finger material on plant spacing, planting
depth, success of transplanting, furrow closure, filling efficiency and damage). The data
observed in soil bin study was analyzed using SAS software to obtain optimum operating
conditions and design values for successful transplanting of onion seedlings. A six row
prototype onion transplanter was then designed using CAD software “Pro-e Wildfire 4.0”
and fabricated based on the findings of soil bin studies and optimum operating conditions
and design values obtained. The performance of prototype was tested in field for
transplanting onion seedlings. Different performance parameters were calculated along
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with cost economics of operation for comparison with currently practiced manual method
of onion seedling transplanting.
The diameter, weight, length and compressive strength of onion seedlings
increases with age making them hardy. The obtained information was used in designing
and selection of different components and also for doing different adjustments in onion
seedling transplanter. In plug metering mechanism, the observed plant spacing was 12.14
to 13.35 cm whereas in finger type metering mechanism it was 16.79 to 19.50 cm. The
planting depth in plug type metering mechanism varied from 1.84 to 2.92 cm whereas in
finger metering mechanism depth of planting ranged from 2.85 to 3.43 cm. The percent
seedling transplanted and percent furrow closure in plug mechanism varied from 76.67 to
100% and 73.33 to 100% respectively and in finger type metering mechanism it ranged
from 18.33 to 78.33% and 15 to 73.33% respectively. In plug mechanism, plug filling
efficiency ranged from 96.67 to 32.22% and it was 95.28 to 22.5% in finger metering
mechanism. In plug mechanism, percent seedling damage ranged from 0 to 17.3% which
was lower than 0 to 31.3% in finger type metering mechanism. The performance of plug
type metering mechanism was found better and closer to the recommended practices than
finger type metering mechanism. Therefore, plug type metering mechanism was selected
for development of tractor operated onion seedling transplanter. The average field
capacity and field efficiency of developed six row semiautomatic onion seedling
transplanter was 0.078 ha/h and 76.53% respectively. The labor requirements in
mechanical transplanting was 115.38 man.h/ha as against 400 man.h/ha in manual
transplanting. The cost of transplanting for developed transplanter was ₹ 8041.92/ha as
against ₹ 12000/ha in manual transplanting. Therefore, a six row semiautomatic onion
seedling transplanter may be recommended for use by farmers to reduce transplanting
costs, and timely and uniform transplanting of onion seedlings.
Description
T-9414
Keywords
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