Abstract:
A manually operated seeder was designed and developed fo r small seeded crops such as Gingelly, Kurakkan, and Meneri, after testing the first proto-type seeder and implementing necessary modifications. The developed seeder has a frame, wheel, metering mechanism, hopper, seed tube, handle and marker. Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance o f the seeder. A comparative performance o f the new raw seeding technique incorporated in the designed seeder was compared with traditional hand broadcasting m ethod Weight o f 1000 seeds, hardness, moisture content, germination and bulk density o f seeds were measured in the Laboratory. Seed delivery rate, rate o f damage seed caused by metering mechanism, pattern o f seed deposit in the field, working capacity, delivery rate in the field, travel reduction (slippage), depth o f seeding, _ and ratio o f established plants to seeds sown were considered as criteria fo r evaluation o f the designed seeder. The delivery rates observed in the laboratory fo r gingelly kurakkan and meneri were 5.8 kg/ha, 5.9 kg/ha and 7.2 kg/ha respectively. The damage seedpercentage o f the designed machine fo r Gingelly, Kurakkan, and Meneri were 9.7, 7.5 and 3.4, respectively. The effective working capacity o f the seeder was 0.66 ha/day, which was significantly higher to that o f broadcasting. It showed that broadcasting was 5 times costlier than machine seeding. On the basis o f above results, the design seeder could be recommendedfor successful row seeding o f small seed crops.
