Rice Transplant Machine Demo

A Japanese-made Yanmar Rice Transplanter at work on wetlands of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. A Japane made rice transplant machine was demonstrated recently on the wetlands of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. According to a university release, the demonstration was part of a training/testing programme on the operation of the machine organised by the university for 30 days in different parts of the state.

In Coimbatore, 25 entrepreneurs and skilled people were trained on nursery raising technique, transplanting operation and main field transplanting technique.

Vice-Chancellor C. Ramasamy said that the machine would be a boon to rice farmers, as it was labour-saving and capable of covering large areas within a short time. According to A. Sampathrajan, Dean (Agricultural Engineering), the Yanmar Rice Transplanter (Model VP6) is completely automated. It is powered by a 14 hp engine with two forward and one reverse gear speeds for field travel. It runs on a set of solid rubber tyres in the front and traction wheels at the rear.

It has a power-steering system which offers easy field operation with small turning radius. The machine can effectively plant 14-day-old rice seedlings with a field capacity of one acre per hour. It uses a rotary transplanting picker mechanism with a fixed row spacing of 30 cm and adjustable plant-to-plant spacing of 13 to 28 cm in steps. The seedlings are transplanted at a depth of 0.8 to four cm as desired, maintaining uniform depth of planting.

It has an automatic hydraulic levelling system to keep the transplanting depths constant in all the rows. The machine is provided with row marking and aligning systems to synchronise the subsequent transplanting passes. Mr. Sampathrajan says that the most important pre-requisite for using this machine for transplanting is the preparation of a special mat nursery on perforated plastic trays of specific size. Soil is filled in the trays and then seeded using special sowing machines intended for automating this operation.

These machines have separate hoppers for soil and seed. These machines fill the soil mixture, sow the seeds at calibrated amounts, cover the seeds with loose soil and finally sprinkle water on the soil media. The trays are left in water-inundated fields to allow the seeds to germinate. After 14 days the seedlings are taken out of the tray and fed to the machine for planting. The pickers of the transplanter transfer a clump of two to three seedlings from the nursery mat to the field soil in each picking.

The demonstration, organised by V.M. Duraisamy, Professor and Head, Agricultural Machinery Research Centre, was conducted by technical personnel of Yanmar Agricultural Marketing and Company, Japan, along with their service agents in India. B. Chandrasekaran, Director of Research and S. Natarajan, Director, Centre for Soil and Crop Management Studies, were present at the demonstration.

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