Development and Evaluation of Inclined Plate Precision Planter for Pelleted Vegetable Seed

A tractor-mounted, ground roller driven, precision planter capable of planting six rows of onion (Allium sativum L.), three rows of carrot (Daucus carota L.), and one row of radish (Raphanus sativus) on a one-meter bed was designed and fabricated. The major components of the planter included a frame and ground roller, press roller, depth controller unit, seed hopper, seed metering mechanism, sweeper, inclined plate, seed tube, and furrow openers. The metering mechanism was driven by ground wheels through a chain drive system. The performance parameters measured/calculated during the field tests included missing index, multiple indexes, quality of feed index, degree of variation, and seed damage. The seed rates achieved were 12.42, 11.26, and 34.11 kg.ha-1 for onion, carrot, and 1:3 pelleted radish seed, respectively. The marketable yields of 4.78, 2.52, and 3.51 t.ha-1 were observed for onion, carrot, and radish, respectively. The estimated operating cost of the prototype planter was 258.45 ₹.h-1. The prototype took an estimated time of 6.09 h to plant the seeds in one hectare. There was significant cost saving as compared to manual transplanting.