Design and Development of a Tractor-Drawn Multi-Row Garlic Planter

Abstract

Garlic (Allium sativum) belongs to the alliaceous family, in the same family as onions. Garlic is one of the most important crops widely cultivated throughout the world including Ethiopia. Garlic is widely used as a seed, for consumption and medicinal purposes. Despite wide use, many problems are not solved in the production system, among which planting technique seems the first. Due to the lack of a garlic planter system farmers still use traditional methods for planting garlic seeds, this traditional method is inefficient, tiresome, labour-intensive, and time-consuming. So by providing planting machines the above problems was eliminated and improve planting efficiency and garlic productivity. The main aim of this study was to design and development of a tractor-drawn multi row garlic planter capable of planting garlic seed. The following method was used, studying physical properties of garlic seed, design all of components, construction process, laboratory test and cost analysis. The developed tractor drawn garlic planter consists of hopper, feed cup, seed metering mechanism, furrow opener, ground wheel, three-point hitch and furrow covering device. The physical properties of two varieties of garlic were studied. The shape index of two varieties was 0.78 and 0.755. The angle of repose of two varieties was and . With a production cost of 16100.815 Ethiopian birr, the garlic planting machine can assist the farmers to save time, reduce planting operation cost and prevent drudgery of labour. Creating a good platform for the farmers to adopt and use the garlic planter effectively and efficiently should be considered by the policy makers.

Key words: Design, development, Garlic planter, cost analysis.