Fabrication of a low-cost drum seeder for paddy

Abstract

Rice is a staple food crop. Bangladesh produces it extensively which raised the nation into the fourth-largest rice-grower in the world. Transplanting or direct seeding is a major task in rice cultivation where the manual transplanting method requires a huge labor cost which is beyond control in a peak season. Although mechanical rice transplanters become popularization land preparation and seedling rising as a pre transplanting task is costly and labor-intensive. On the other hand, manual broadcasting and machine seeding direct method still exist due to the above method’s problem. Considering spacing accuracies for intercultural operation, drum seeders are an easy and convenient method for Bangladeshi farmers. This research was carried out to design and develop a drum seeder considering existing problems related to the spacing accuracies and cost optimization. It was tested for paddy seeds under laboratory setup. The developed drum seeder has double-rows with 20 cm row spacing which has a 2.4 m working width and weighs only 15 kg. The calibration test of the seeder reveals that the seed rate increased with the decrease in amount of seeds filled with hopper. Filling with one-fourth of drum’s full capacity results in the optimum seed rate (86.33 kg ha-1). On the other hand, an unacceptable seed rate was found (26.68 kg ha-1) when the drum was filled of its full capacity. The performance of the seeder in the laboratory setup was satisfactory and the overall cost to fabricate the drum seeder was found 18.15 USD which is acceptable for farmers. An extension is needed to adopt the drum seeder to the Bangladeshi farmers.