Performance evaluation of self-propelled rice transplanter

Direct seeding of rice and transplanting are the two common methods of rice establishment. Transplanting method is more popular among farmers due to higher yield and less weed growth as compared to direct seeded rice. Transplanting of paddy completely depends on manual labour in India. Rice transplanting is done manually and requires about 306 man-h/ha, which is roughly 42% of the total labour requirement of rice production. A study was conducted to evaluate the performance of eight row self-propelled rice transplanter at ICAR-National Rice Research Institute. The field capacity, field efficiency of self-propelled rice transplanter were 0.234 ha h-1, 75.16% respectively. It was observed that, the percentages of missing, floating and buried hills were 9.5%, 3.0% and 2.0% when self-propelled rice transplanter working in the field. The depth of transplanting was 6 cm. At the time of operation depth of standing water was 2.5-3 cm. The number of seedlings per hill was 2-3.