Indices for comparative performance evaluation of seed drills

Abstract

The performance of a seed drill depends on manufacturing quality, precision and performance under field condition. In this study, an overall performance index was developed to compare performance of seed drills manufactured in different regions of Madhya Pradesh state of India for sowing of soybean and wheat crops. The test parameters of seed drills such as inter row variation of seed and fertilizer, seed damage, variation in seed placement, number of seeds dropped per meter, effective field capacity, field efficiency, fuel consumption, working width, type of furrow opener, hardness of furrow opener and weight of machine were selected to calculate precision, performance, machine quality and overall performance indices of seed drills. A completely randomized design was used to analyze test data of selected 90 seed drills. The average precision index of seed drills was 0.70 and 0.64 for wheat and soybean crops, respectively. The average performance index of seed drills was 0.72 and 0.73 for sowing of wheat and soybean crops, respectively. The machine quality index of the seed drills varied from 0.60 to 0.72. The overall performance index of the seed drills was 0.70 for wheat and 0.67 for soybean crops. The overall performance of seed drills manufactured in Malwa plateau of Madhya Pradesh was the best for sowing of wheat (0.74) and soybean (0.72) crops. Significant difference was observed among the seed drills manufactured in different regions of Madhya Pradesh based on precision, performance, machine quality and overall performance indices.