PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TRIANGULAR CELL SUNFLOWER SEED METER UNDER FIELD CONDITIONS USING POWER TILLER

PERFORMANCE OF TRIANGULAR CELL SEED METER FOR SUNFLOWER SEED

Abstract

At present it was observed that triangular cell sunflower seed metering roller has not been evaluated under field conditions using tractor powered planter. This study was undertaken to evaluate its working performance under field conditions using power tiller. Randomized complete block design with three replications and three level of forward speed and quantity of seed in hopper was used to evaluate performance of triangular cell sunflower seed metering roller. Performance indices namely mean spacing, miss index, multiple indexes, quality of feed index, precision index, and coefficient of variation were used to describe performance of triangular cell sunflower seed metering roller and results were analysed statistically to determine the effect of forward speed, quantity of seed in hopper and their interaction on performance indices.  Best performance was at combination of forward speed 1.3 km h^-1 and 2.392 kg quantity of seeds in hopper which gave 26.16 cm mean spacing, 2.25% miss index, 0.43% multiple indexes, 97.33% quality of feed index and 16.58% precision index. Based on agronomical recommendations for sunflower planting and performance comparison with other sunflower metering device, it is concluded that triangular cell sunflower seed metering roller can perform efficiently and economically and may be adopted by small and medium farmers.