Development of a low cost manually operated two row vegetable transplanter

Abstract

A low cost manually operated two row vegetable transplanter was developed for transplantingof plug type vegetable seedlings on ridges and mulch beds. It consisted of frame, seedling tray holder,hand lever, frame support rod, jaw assembly, seedling feeding pipe, handle, gauge wire, marker holderand marker. The developed transplanter was evaluated for inter and intra-row spacings of 45×45 cm and60×60 cm. Manual transplanting on ridges (MTR) and on plastic mulch beds (MTP) were compared withmanually operated transplanter on ridges (MOTR) and on plastic mulch beds (MOTP). The transplantingrate of vegetable seedlings using single labour was found to be 8, 5, 23 and 17 seedlings min-1 for MTR,MTP, MOTR and MOTP, respectively. Forward speed ranged from 0.15 to 0.41 km/h for entire range ofspacing and type of transplanting selected. Similarly, field efficiency was found to be 30 and 41% (MTR),21 and 28% (MTP), 45 and 60% (MOTR), 33 and 44% (MOTP) for spacing of 45×45 and 60×60 cm,respectively. Similarly, cost of operation (Rs/ha) was found to be 2571 and 1416; 3770 and 2121; 884 and497 and 1200 and 675 Rs/ha, respectively. Difference in heart rate, cardiac cost and maximum oxygenconsumption rate was worked out to be 33 beats/min, 203703/ha (20.37 beats/m2) and 2.9109 l/min.Moreover rest pause during the operation was worked out to be 4.5 minute. The time saving over manualtransplanting is 34% and 32% in MOTR and MOTP, respectively.