DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF BATTERY OPERATED SEED DRILL 2940
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Date
2019-09
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jau,junagadh
Abstract
Pulses is one of the important crops. The food value of pulses is essential due to its high protein content. The pulses crop is mainly grown for its grains which are consumed either whole or in split form (dal). Properly and timely sowing has a dominant effect on germination of seed, plant growth, plant population in the field and ultimately on the total production. In general, pulses is sown by animal/tractor drawn seed drill or manually. Tractor drawn seed drills are suitable for medium or big farms with high seed rate. Draft animals are not only becoming costly but they are diminishing also. More than 75 % of Indian farmers belong to small and marginal category and doing all operations manually. Manual sowing is a highly labour intensive, tedious, time consuming and not technically suitable. Therefore, a double row battery operated seed drill for pulses seed was developed and tested.
During the study, the required physical properties of chickpea seed was determined. The developed seed drill was tested for laboratory and field test. The overall size of developed seed drill was 2030×1150×1050 mm. It was operated by 24V, 28Ah battery. A DC motor of 400 watt 24V was used as power source. Ground wheels have 14 lugs. It sowed seeds in two rows at a time. The overall weight of developed seed drill was 54 kg. In the laboratory test, seed rate, and mechanical damage of the developed seed drill were found as 63.20 kg/ha, and 1.20% respectively. The overall performance of the developed seed drill was found satisfactory.
While in the field, draft of implement 37.19 kgf, missing index 2.46%, depth of seed placement 6.10 cm, germination per cent 84.49%, and cost of operation of the developed seed drill were ₹350.22/ha. And the field test of manually existing seed drill for draft of implement 14.51 kgf, missing index 3.63%, depth of seed placement 6.20 cm, and cost of operation were obtained ₹ 426.20/ha. The field efficiency of the developed seed drill and manually existing seed drill were found as 83% and 75% respectively.