Performance Evaluation of Manually Operated Single Row Cotton Planter

Cotton plays a major role in Indian economy and offers employment for more than 60 million people. The yield of cotton in Gujarat state about 758 lakh bales. In Gujarat the sowing of cotton is labour intensive as its plating requires 12-15 hr/ha. The single row cotton planter was tested and calibrated in laboratory as well as in field as per Indian Standard Test Code No. 6316:1993. The field evaluation of manually operated cotton planter was done by pulling the cotton planter in which, speed of planter was 1.62 km/h, actual operating time in 4.53 minute was required to cover area of 0.01 ha with actual field capacity of 0.132 ha/hr and field efficiency was 79.52%. The percentage damage in cotton seed is 1.236% more by planter compared to conventionally manual dibbling. The average time requirement by manually operated cotton planter was 7.57 hr/ha while manually sowing around 11.12 hr/ha. The average seed rate in manual cotton planter was 3.031 kg/ha. The cost of planting cotton by manually method is approximately 209 Rs/ha, where as the cost by this machine is 168 Rs/ha.