Design, development and field evaluation of a tractor-operated ginger planter

Abstract

Ginger rhizome planting has been a challenge for farmers in India due to the lack of suitable machinery. Farmers have continued to rely on traditional planting methods, which is time-consuming, labour-intensive, and associated with significant human drudgery. Major ginger-growing states have often experienced labour shortages during the sowing season. To address this challenge, a tractor-operated ginger planter has been developed and evaluted at ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, for planting ginger seed rhizomes. The field tests results revealed that cup size, speed, and ginger seed grade significantly influenced the performance of the developed planter. As the cup size increased, the percentage of multiples have increased, while the percentage of missed seeds have decreased. The highest quality of feed index has been observed for graded seeds with cup size (A2) at the forward speed of 2 km/h. The developed ginger rhizome planter is suiable to precise planting of seed rhizomes, with an effective field capacity of 0.25 ha/h. The labour requirement has been reduced by 76% compared to conventional methods of planting. Furthermore, the developed planter has cut the operational costs by 40% and significantly reduced the human drudgery involved in ginger planting operations.