Background:
Transplanting of onion seedlings are currently done manually in India. Manual transplanting of seedlings leads to higher production cost on account of higher labour required for transplanting and also sponsors manual weeding in non-uniform closely spaced onion transplants. In case of semi-automatic transplanters the seedlings are to be manually fed in the metering devices. The developed tractor drawn transplanter has a seedling pick-up mechanism (metering unit) which automatically pick-up the seedlings from the bundle and drop directly into the furrow at equal interval to maintain the plant spacing. This uniqueness of the machine provides the base for appropriate cost effective solution to mechanize the transplanting of bare root onion seedlings. The line sowing at 15 cm spacing and uniform spaced plant population would encourage mechanical weeding which automatically freed the labour from arduous activity and thus promote the mechanization in onion crop. Therefore, a tractor drawn transplanter for onion seedlings was developed.:
Technology Details:
The transplanter consists of a main frame with tractor hitch arrangement, seedling metering units (eight number), soil bed firmer-cum-ground drive roller, gauge wheel-cum-transport wheels, seedling hopper, furrow opener assembly (special ski type), and chain and sprocket type power transmission system. The developed prototypes can be operated with tractors above 25 hp. Its self-adjusting independent suspension type ski soles compacts the soil bed ahead of furrow opener. The overall dimensions of the developed machine is 1770x1775x1049 mm (LxWxH). Its average field capacity and field efficiency is 0.095 ha/h and 84 per cent. The depth of operation can be adjusted by its gauge wheel-cum-transport wheels provided at the rear of the machine.