Development and Performance Evaluation of Tractor Drawn Faba Bean Row Planter

In the majority of the nation, manual hand metering of faba bean row planting and broadcasting methods of sowing are still in use. The broadcasting method exposes seeds to rodent and bird consumption, results in uneven seed placement at appropriate intervals, and fails to firmly plant the seeds in the soil hence design, development, and introduction of improved technologies is needed to promote and uphold land and labor productivities. The purpose of this study was to design, build, and assess the effectiveness of a constructed planter that could plant faba bean seeds at depths, inter and intra-row spacing that were predetermined. The investigation to optimize the design of the planter's sections involved the physical characteristics of the Tumsa faba and Gabalcho bean seed varieties. The constructed planter is made up of a frame, drive wheels, a flexible furrow opener, a seed tube/spout, a seed hopper, and seed metering devices. The developed planter was assessed based on the following metrics: field capacity, field efficiency, percent miss index, percent multiple index, percent precision index, and percent quality feed index. A randomized complete block design comprising three replications, three speed levels, and three hopper loading levels was the experimental setup. According to the study, the faba bean varieties Tumsa and Gabalcho had sphericity values of 65.82±4.42 and 65.42±4.33, respectively. At operating speeds of 3, 5, and 7 km/hr, the planter's percentages of visible mechanically damaged seed were 0.41, 0.87, and 1.34, respectively. The amount and the extent of internal seed damage initiated by the metering device-directed mean percent seed germination of 95.59, 95.13, and 94.66% at 3, 5, and 7 km/hr forward speed, respectively, were evaluated through germination tests. The percentage miss index, percentage multiple indexes, percentage quality feed index, and percentage precision index were all significantly impacted by the planter's forward speed at p < 0.05, and the ideal operating speed should not be greater than 5 km/h. At 3, 5, and 7 km/hr speed levels, the average field capacity and field efficiency were, 0.42 ha/hr, 0.66 ha/hr, 0.89 ha/hr, and 87.22%, 82.48%, and 80.48% respectively. It is determined that the constructed planter can be used in faba bean row planting operations in an economical and efficient manner based on the results of the performance evaluation.