Field Evaluation of Two-row Root Wash Type Paddy Transplanter

Abstract

Rice is one of India's most important food crops, and its cultivation includes tedious and labour-intensive processes.  Although the number of paddy transplanters in Odisha in the past 10 years has climbed to 2990, the majority of the area is still under manual transplantation. The acceptance of mechanical transplanters is lower due to the extra cost, skill, and time required to raise the mat-type seedlings used in these transplanters. Root wash type paddy transplanter has been a long-awaited demand by farmers. Keeping this in mind, a suitable root wash type transplanter has been developed in CAET which can use the traditional root wash type seedlings used by the farmers. The field evaluation of the same was done to evaluate its performance. The percentage of missing hills, floating hills, buried hills and damaged hills were observed to be 5.65, 4.25, 4.25 and 1.40 per cent, respectively. The total unproductive hill was calculated to be 15.58 per cent, which was higher than the recommended value of 10 per cent. The actual field capacity, theoretical field capacity and field efficiency were found to be 0.0179 ha/h, 0.0265 ha/h and 67.24 per cent, respectively. The average increase in the heart rate and oxygen consumption rate were found to be 60 bpm and 0.63 l/min. The fabrication cost of the transplanter was found to be ₹4960.00 and the cost of transplanting per ha was observed to be ₹2631.00 which saves about ₹6119 per hectare against manual transplanting (₹ 8750.00). Above all, this particular developed Transplanter has several ergonomical benefits like it improves efficiency, reduces physical strain, lowers injury risk, minimizes fatigue,and enhances comfort by enabling upright posture and mechanized transplanting.