Design, Development and Performance Evaluation of a Power Operated Rice Seeder for Dry and Wet Seeding

Direct seeded rice (wet or dry row seeding) is one of the methods suitable for rainfed rice cultivation in Chhattisgarh, India. In wet seeded rice (WSR), the pre- germinated seeds are broadcasted or sown in rows on the saturated soil surface, after puddling. Dry seeded rice ( DSR) involves broadcasting or drilling the seed into non-puddled soil, usually after dry tillage. There is no such single versatile machine available for used in both WSR and DSR cultivation. Thus, a power operated 8-row riding type commercially available rice transplanter was modified for direct-seeded rice for the wet and dry condition. It consists of a 4-stroke 2.94 kW, 2600 rpm air cooled diesel engine, power-driven traction wheel, gear box, universal coupling, sets of bevel and spur gear, float for wet seeding and hoe type furrow openers for dry seeding, and cup feed metering mechanism. The cup dimensions of 12 mm diameter and 10 mm depth were found best with a permissible peripheral velocity up to 20.5 m/min. A series of cup type metering mechanism containing seed disc with a funnel was linked horizontally. It could cover 8 rows of seeds in a single pass. The row to row spacing was 20 cm. An opening was made in the upper part of the seed box for storing the dry seeds or pre-germinated seeds at the time of operation under dry or wet field conditions respectively. The plant to plant spacing can be varied from 20, 15 and 10 cm by using 4, 6 and 8 numbers of cups, respectively. The average seed rate for 20 cm row to row and 15 cm plant to plant spacing was found to be 17.8 kg/ha and 22.1 kg/ha for wet and dry conditions. The actual field capacity and field efficiency for wet and dry conditions of the machine was 0.22 ha/ h & 0.25 ha/ h and 71.8% & 77.6%, respectively. The average fuel consumptions were found to be 2.88 l/ha and 2.56 l/ha for wet and dry conditions. The cost of operation of sowing of rice by power operated rice seeder was Rs.1043/ha which was 7.8 times less than from manual transplanting of rice and 2.3 times less than riding type mechanical rice transplanter. Per hectare cultivation cost of rice by power operated rice seeder on wet and dry field condition was Rs 22,025 and Rs 25,110, with B:C ratio as 2.9 and 3.5, respectively.