2-Mechanical Transplanter

Transcript

Hello friends. So far, we have looked at the different components of CASI. We looked at one of its components called Mechanical Rice Transplanting and why we needed it. The most difficult task in rice cultivation is its sowing/transplantation. We do puddling and then transplant seedlings and for this we have to stand all day in the field. This work is mainly done by women and our young generation. By standing and working all day, we get hand and various body related ailments. Basically, the process of transplanting involves a lot of drudgery. To avoid doing all this and to overcome the shortage of labour, we started to work on a Rice Transplanter. Its demonstrations began in the year 2001 – 2002 in India and the preliminary research showed positive results.

So what does it have? It requires a Mat Nursery which is a special component of this machine. There are two types of this machine. Earlier, we had only one type of this machine in India and it was the floating type machine which is the one we are seeing. The other one is a hydraulic or running type and it is more efficient and light.

This is a floating type mechanical rice planter. We keep the Mat nursery over here. According to this, we adjust the depth of the Mat nursery and this is a finger and it takes each seedling and plants them down on the ground as it moves forward. Mechanical rice transplanter plants the seedling on ridges. As it moves forward, it creates ridges from here in the middle. This floats and this presses it down and it goes up where our seedling gets planted as it moves forward.

There are two levels of depth adjustment. The distance between seedling and plant is 12 cm and 14 cm and we adjust this distance. This has a line to line distance of 22 cm and we can also adjust it a bit. We can’t adjust this on a floating type but it can be adjusted on a hydraulic or running type.

So this is what we call a mechanical rice transplanter. Now, we would look at its components. This component is called a rotating flat board and its job is to facilitate mat nursery. Its distance is 22 cm. This is a finger controller and it has fingers which we rotate. Besides this, we have a floating platform and it floats over puddled soil. This is the engine and its components. This is its belt. When we release it, the fingers get activated and it acts as a control to turn it on and off. This is the adjustment where we can adjust the distance between seed and seedling from 12 cm to 14 cm. If we have to take this to the road, then this is the gear system and this is the high gear.

This is for adjusting it and is used if our floating system gets jammed and we adjust it to release it. These are the two platforms and two people are sitting on it to feed the mat nursery.

Besides this, we have pads and it is a very important part as it brings down the mat nursery as it gets empty and also takes it from one direction to another. As it moves forward, it changes direction as the mat nursery is emptied. This floats the mat nursery so if there is any gap then it does the adjustment. This is to make ridges in floating type and this is a wheel which is used when we have to transport it on the road and we take the wheels out when the machine works on the field so that it can float.

This is to control the seedling depth. If we have more depth, then we open it up. If we have to reduce the seedling depth, then we have to bring it up. Along with that, we have these two adjustments and its job is to adjust the number of seedlings. If our mat nursery is too thin or thick and if we want to keep the seedling from 2 to 4 or from 4 to 6 per hill, then we can adjust them with those two adjustments. So, if we  have to place less seedlings, then we open this and adjust that accordingly and this adjust the number of seedlings. So these are all the important parts that contribute to the machine’s functioning.

Like I said earlier, there are two types of mechanical rice transplanter. The first is a floating type which we just looked at and the other over here is a hydraulic or running type. This has more adjustments and is more efficient. The mat nursery is also more efficient and this machine is comparatively easier to transport from one field to another as it has a hydraulic system and has good speed. This also has mainly two variants. One is a 4-line system and the other is an 8-line system.

We looked at the floating system and it also has two variants. One is a 4-line system which is used mainly by small farmers and the other is an 8-line system which can plant 8 lines in one go with this.

The floating type is less efficient and is not easy to transport from one field to another. But on the other side is a Hydraulic or running type and it requires no floating mechanism. You can see that the platform runs on wheels and is not a floating type and its speed is also higher. It also has two variants, one is a 4- line variant and the other is an 8-line variant. It also has a high efficiency variant which is an eight-line system and can run at a high speed.

But, we are mainly catering to the small farmers of India and for them the 4-line variant is more efficient. There is an 8-line variant available as well. This is how they work but the hydraulic variants have more adjustments which you can see. They have more row to row and plant to plant adjustments available as compared to floating variants.

Like I told you earlier, both the floating variant and the hydraulic variant require a special type of mat nursery and it has a different way of preparing. There are two ways of preparing the mat nursery. The first is using a tray of exact dimensions which we fill with soil and put/slide it in. The other is a local way of preparing on a polythene mat. Mat nursery preparation is difficult to do on a small farmer to farmer scale and is more suited for doing on a large scale in a custom hire center. In this way, we can provide both machine and mat nursery services to farmers.

Now, we have both the types of machines with us i.e. hydraulic and floating types and both of these have similar maintenance requirements. We get a user manual for both these machine types and it is very important to read it before doing any sort of maintenance. I will present to you some of the main maintenance.

First, we need to grease and oil the components properly. We need to make sure there are no stones or pebbles in the fingers and if any finger is broken then we need to replace it. Also, if the mat pad has broken down or is damaged then we need to replace it. We need to make sure that the floating roll is greased too well. Also, the power mechanism shaft has pins that need to be replaced if broken.

Second, on a floating type, it is important to close the seedling during a turn instead of releasing it as it can break and we can start it again after we have completed the turn. Such a problem is not available in the hydraulic type.

We also have to see if there is gear oil as it can break if it is too dry. It’s engine needs maintenance and repairs just like a tractor engine. We have to only use filtered oil and also clean the filters of the cooling system.

Again, the gear box needs to have oil and if it’s leaking oil due to seal breakage then it needs to be fixed.

These are its main parts. Hydraulic has slightly different parts because it’s technology is more advanced but still its principle, maintenance parts and mechanism are the same and only the machines are different. Accordingly, both of these have manuals and we need to take care of their maintenance accordingly.

Now if we talk about efficiency, then in a day, it can do planting in one hectare. This is for an 8-line variant. The 4-line variant will have half the efficiency of an 8-line variant. In the same way, we have efficiency of the Hydraulic type and it has more efficiency because it is a running type. These days, the floating type comes with a seat arrangement. The hydraulic one has two variants. One is a walk behind variant and the other is with a sitting arrangement. Both the hydraulic variants have their respective prices and are available in the market.

So friends, we learnt about what a mechanical transplanter machine, its different components and how it works. Now, we will look at how this works on the field, understand and observe all its steps and then help farmers with its functionality and if they face any problem with it.

This is a labor saving technology and it has health benefits for the community especially for women. So this saves time and labor and frees women from drudgery as they no longer have to stand all day in water and do transplanting. This is a very good machine as it does mechanized seeding and it will generate employment in the rural sector.

Thank you.