Development of A Conveyor Seeder for Direct Sowing of Wheat in Combine-Harvested Rice Field

A prototype of 9-row conveyor seeder was developed to enable direct drilling of wheat in combine harvested rice field. In this machine, a pick up conveyor-cum-elevator has been attached in front of a no-till drill. The pickup conveyor-cum-elevator consist of spikes to lift loose paddy straw in front of furrow openers of the seed drill and drill wheat in between the standing stubbles. The loose straw settles on field as mulch. Power to the pickup conveyor-cum-elevator is provided by tractor PTO through gear box. Field trials of the machine were conducted during rabi 2012–13 and 2013–14. The average yield of the wheat crop sown with 9-row conveyor seeder was 4777.5 kg/ha. There was saving of 31.23 and 57.49 per cent in cost of operation with conveyor seeder over happy seeder and conventional method, respectively. Overall, there was economic saving of Rs 905/ha with conveyor seeder over conventional method whereas happy seeder resulted in saving of Rs 1160/ha over conveyor seeder. Sowing performance of the conveyor seeder was found to be encouraging, though there were some patches of straw in the field.