ASSESSMENT OF BARI INCLINED PLATE PLANTER AND EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT TILLAGE METHODS

Abstract

Engineering parameters of the bed planter and the inclined plate planter for bed planting, minimum tillage, strip tillage and conventional tillage cum hand planting methods were estimated at Gazipur.  Field tests of the machines for different tillage practices were conducted at Gazipur, Pabna, and Barisal. Field tests were conducted with four treatments: Bed planting with inclined plate seed metering, minimum tillage with inclined plate planter, strip tillage with inclined plate planter and conventional tillage and hand planting. All the treatments were replicated thrice with RCB design. The planter was tested for sowing maize, wheat and mungbean during 2012-13. Bed planting, minimum tillage and strip till methods required 26%, 30% and 57% less energy and contributed 27%, 31% and 57% less CO₂ in air than the conventional methods. The field efficiency for strip tillage and minimum tillage were 79% and 75% respectively, whereas it was 73% for bed planter. 27%, 53%, and 60% time saving were found for bed planting, minimum tillage and strip till respectively than the conventional tillage method for maize production which required three passes of power tiller and one laddering operation. Inclined plate planter was suitable for small (mungbean) to large (maize) seed. Inclined plate metering device incorporated in bed planter showed better performance than others methods. But power tiller operated inclined plate planter reduced planting time as it covered double area than the bed planter. Significantly higher yield of maize and wheat were found in bed planting than minimum tillage, strip tillage and conventional tillage. Similar yield of mungbean was found in bed planting, minimum tillage and strip tillage. The cost for land preparation and planting for bed planting, minimum tillage and strip tillage were 89%, 86% and 81% less than the conventional maize planting method. The payback period of the BARI planter for strip tillage and minimum tillage are 0.88 and 1.20 year respectively and for bed planter it is 1.08 year.