African Journal of
Agricultural Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Agric. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1991-637X
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJAR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 6865

Full Length Research Paper

Performance evaluation of a tractor mounted pneumatic planter for sorghum in dryland

Ranjeet Kumar
  • Ranjeet Kumar
  • GKV, RMD College of Agriculture, Ambikapur, India.
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Sirisha Adamala
  • Sirisha Adamala
  • Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal-721302, India.
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Yogesh Anand Rajwade
  • Yogesh Anand Rajwade
  • Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal-721302, India.
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Harsh Vardhan Singh
  • Harsh Vardhan Singh
  • University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
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  •  Received: 18 June 2015
  •  Accepted: 10 September 2015
  •  Published: 24 September 2015

Abstract

Performance of a pneumatic planter was studied in both laboratory and actual field conditions using sorghum seeds in context to justify its use in dry land. Pneumatic planter consists of frame, aspirator blower, seed hopper, metering unit, multi-groove metering plate, vacuum retaining plate, furrow opener, pair of ground wheels with power transmission system. The multi groove metering plate having seed hole of diameter 3 mm and vacuum pressure of 2 kPa were used throughout the experiments for picking of single seed. Based on the results of laboratory tests the performance of the pneumatic planter was carried out in field. Data on performance parameters of the pneumatic planter was collected, analyzed and found that, average values of plant to plant spacing, miss index and multiple index, actual field capacity and field efficiency were found to be 101 mm, 2.07%, 3.8%, 0.773 ha/h and 79.7%, respectively.

 

Key words: Pneumatic planter, sorghum, seed rate, performance indices.

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This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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