PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND COMPARISON OF RIDE-ON AND WALK-AFTER RICE TRANSPLANTERS

Rice (Oryza sativa) is an important cereal grain used as a staple food to fulfill daily calories requirement. Conventionally, rice seeds are sown in a nursery and then transplanted manually into the paddy fields with the help of skilled labor, but this method is time-consuming, costly, and as well as labor-intensive. This conventional method may result in irregular plant patterns, decreased plant population, and ultimately reduction of farm yield and profit. Nowadays, rice transplanter machines are selectively used. The performance of Ride-On and Walk-After Rice Transplanters were evaluated to assess their feasibility in local field conditions. The key performance indicators i.e. Effective Field Capacity, Field Efficiency and Seedling Losses were selected to assess the efficacy of these machines. The data collected were investigated at a 5% level of probability and the trials were conducted with the experimental design following Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The Ride-On Rice Transplanter (SPV-8C) had maximum mean Effective Field Capacity (0.67ha/h) and Field Efficiency (73.6%) at speed of 5 km/h while the seedling losses (1.23%) were minimum for Walk-After Rice Transplanter (SPW-48C) at speed of 2 km/h. The experimental results shown that Effective Field Capacity and Field Efficiency was found better for Ride-On Rice Transplanter (SPV-8C) as compared to Ride-On Rice Transplanter (SPV-6CMD) and Walk-After Rice Transplanter (SPW-48C).