Comparative performance of seed metering mechanisms for finger millet and barnyard millet
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Date
2018-08
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Sowing is the pivotal operation in cultivation of any crop. Sowing of finger millet and barnyard millet is performed by broadcasting in the hills of Uttarakhand. The recommended seed rate requirement for finger millet and barnyard millet varies from 8- 10 kg/ha which contains about 4 million seeds. To obtain higher yields an optimum 4-5 lakh plant population is required. Therefore, after sowing thinning operation is followed to maintain a plant spacing of 7.5–10 cm. As finger millet and barnyard millet are small seeded crops, the seeds need to be placed precisely and thus it requires an appropriate seed metering mechanism in order to minimize the seed rate requirement. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of the existing as well as designed seed metering mechanisms for metering the finger millet and barnyard millet seeds. Four types of seed metering mechanism namely inclined plate type (existing), inclined plate type (developed), cup feed type and sponge pad and disc type were selected and tested in the laboratory using sticky belt method in order to determine the uniformity in metering of finger millet and barnyard millet seeds. The performance of seed metering mechanisms was evaluated at five levels of forward speed i.e. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 km/h. Based on seed to seed spacing and number of seeds dropped performance indicators such as mean seed spacing, multiple index, quality of feed index, miss index, precision, seed rate were calculated. Also, number of visibly damaged seeds were counted and percentage of seed damage was determined. Coefficient of uniformity based on seeds to seed spacing and based on number of seeds dropped was calculated. The results were statistically analysed using two factorial ANOVA with completely randomized design. From the results, inclined plate type (developed) seed metering mechanism was found most suitable for barnyard millet seeds and with higher quality of feed index than other seed metering mechanisms with value ranging from 80.4- 88.4 percent at different levels of forward speed. The seed damage was found to be within the permissible limit. Inclined plate type (developed) seed metering mechanism gave better performance at 3 km/h forward speed for finger millet and 4 km/h for barnyard millet. The cup feed type seed metering mechanism gave better performance for sowing of both the seeds. Quality of feed index was found to be in the range of 60.2-71.0 and 71.5-83.3 percent at different levels of forward speed for finger millet and barnyard millet respectively. The performance of cup feed type seed metering was found to be better at 2 and 3 km/h forward speed for finger millet and barnyard millet respectively. Seed damage was not observed with cup feed type seed metering mechanism.
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