DEVELOPMENT OF A MANUALLY OPERATED TWO ROW-SINGLE METERING PLATE MAIZE PLANTER
Maize planting is a very tedious operation which is mostly done manually in Nigeria making it expensive and less efficient. This research work develops a manually operated two row maize planter with single horizontal plate metering mechanism, constructed using locally available material (mild steel Square pipe, circular rod and sheets) to make it affordable to the local farmers and carried out its performance evaluation in order to reduce the drudgery involve in manual maize planting as well as improve the timeliness of the operation. The planter consists of the following parts: the main frame, a feeding hopper, a horizontal disc metering mechanism, two land wheels, bevel gears and a push handle. The performance of the planter was carried out using maize seeds. The result of the performance of the planter include an average field efficiency of 68.18%, a field capacity of 0.16 ha/h with an average of 13.3% seed damaged and an average missing rate of 17.5%. The average intra row spacing of the developed planter is 34.4 cm and a total plant population of 38,725 stands/ha. The developed maize planter can be operated efficiently by a single person and can be adopted for use by our local farmers.
Authors : A. J. Abubakar, S. A. Iya, H. U. Kabri and B. Garba
Category : Open Access Volume (Issue) : 6(1) Date Uploaded : 19th September 2020