Labour saving vegetable transplater developed

Ludhiana, Aug 31 (UNI) After the success of the paddy transplanter, a 2-row tractor-operated vegetable transplanter for transplanting seedlings of brinjal, cauliflower, carrot and tomato was successfully demonstrated at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) here today.

The transplaters has been developed by Dr I K Garg, G S Manes, and Dr Annop Dixit (Research Engineers), of the Department of Farm Power and Machinery of PAU under AICRP on Farm Implements and Machinery.

Expalining the details during the demonstrations, Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering, Dr P K Gupta said that the machine consists of a frame, two lugged ground wheels, seedling trays, seat for the operator, furrow openers, compaction wheels, finger guide tunnel and picker wheel metering mechanism. He added that a water tank ( capacity 100 litres) has also been provided with the machine to spray water on the transplanted seedlings so as to ensure the supply of water for meeting immediate need of seedlings.

Picking forks mounted on the metering mechanism have spring mounted rubber flappers which open before passing through the tunnel and close during its passage. The flappers open at the bottom end of the tunnel to release the seedlings in a furrow opened by the furrow opener.

The seedlings are placed manually in the flappers by the persons sitting on the machine for this purpose.

Discussing the manual requirement for operating the machine, Dr Gupta said that generally one person is required for each row to place the seedlings in the flappers when these open at the top position.The wheels compact the soil around the seedlings.

Power from the wheel is supplied to the planting mechanism through shaft, chain and sprockets. There is also a provision in the machine to change plant spacing.

The machine has a capacity to cover about 1.75 to 2.0 acres/day when operated at a speed of about 1.0 km/hr. Missing of plants is very low, that is about 3 to 4 percent. The machine has exhibited highly satisfactory performance for transplanting seedlings of tomato and chilies, cauliflower and cabbage.Dr Gupta said that this machine will help in diversification of agriculture.

According to Dr I S Dhaliwal, Head, Deptt of Farm Power and Machinery, the machine will be beneficial for transplanting vegetable crops as it saves about 50 per cent of labour. It is expected that with the introduction of this machine, the area under vegetable crops will increase.

UNI HS BK1622