Design and development of single row auto-feed potato planter cum fertilizer applicator for small farmers

Abstract

Background: Traditional methods of potato planting on the field is labor intensive, time consuming and produce low yields of potato per hectare. Agriculture mechanization plays very important role for horticulture crops. To reduce the labour scarcity, labour drudgery, time consumption in manual planting of potatoes in local areas of different villages, a prototype was designed, fabricated and evaluated in the field. The present study was carried out at Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, Raipur (C.G.).Methods: The potato tubers taken were divided into three categories i.e., round, oblong and long-oblong and their physical and mechanical properties were required for designing different units of planter, they were found out.Result: The model of all components of potato planter were designed by solid work software and fabricated. Developed potato planter consists of seed metering device, seed tube, seed tuber covering duct, fertilizer tube, furrow openers, power transmission wheel, seed and fertilizer hopper. Capacity of seed and fertilizer hopper was kept at 55 kg and 15 kg respectively.