Development of Animal Drawn Multicrop Row Planter

This study was undertaken to design, fabricate and evaluate the performance of a prototype planter capable of planting maize, haricot beans and sorghum seeds at predetermined spacings and depths. Physical properties of seeds involved in the study were investigated to optimize the design of the planter¿s components. The prototype planter, consisting of a frame, seed hopper, seed metering devices, seed tube/spout, adjustable furrow opener, adjustable furrow covering device, and drive wheels. The performances were evaluated in terms of percent seed miss index (MISI, % seed skip), percent seed multiple index (MULI, % redundancy), percent quality seed feed index (QTFI, % cell fill), percent seed precision index (PREC, percent spacing variability), depth of planting, plant count/stand, field capacity, field efficiency, labour cost and economics owning and operating. The experimental design used was factorial (three seed types, three speeds of operation, three levels of hopper fill and three replications). The investigation revealed that the sphericity of maize, haricot bean and sorghum were 71.89, 71.13 and 84.61, respectively.