Multi-Purpose Paddy Sowing Machine

Cooperating agency for this topic:
Agricultural Machinery Development and Testing Group,
Agricultural Engineering Research Institute
Department of Agriculture, Thailand
Paholyothin Road, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900 Thailand
Tel: 66-2940-5582
Fax. 66-2940-5582
E-mail: aed@doa.go.th, 2005-12-01

Today, farmers prefer paddy seedling sowing to the usual transplanting style. Paddy seeds and pellet fertilizers are sown together and most farmers do it around the same time of the year. Good sowing is achieved when seeds are consistently spread, as an inconsistent spread will result to high costs and low yields. Therefore, paddy seedling sowing is a significant step in modern rice farming.

However, for a consistent spread, farmers have to constantly cast the seeds from their shoulders by hand. As a result, they suffer from extreme fatigue by the end of the day. Consequently, they are often unable to complete sowing on schedule, thus resulting in low yields and high costs.

To overcome this problem, the Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Department of Agriculture, Thailand has successfully designed and developed a paddy seedling sowing machine that can be installed with a pesticide sprayer of any make, either a specific pesticide sprayer or a multipurpose sprayer.

The AERI's paddy seedling and fertilizer sowing machine has the following features:

• 1. Engine and fan: Engine and fan are positioned on a rucksack. Tests show that chemical or multipurpose sprayers used by most farmers can be modified for use as a paddy seedling sowing machine.
• 2. A tank for seeds made of rust-free aluminum, is durable and light (Fig. 1). As this is positioned on the farmer's back while seed spraying, it is specially designed for convenient use, especially in alleviating fatigue (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3). The bottom of the tank is slanted to allow the seeds and fertilizers to flow freely together. The tank is designed to work with any type of sprayer and each tank is able to contain around 24 kg of dry seeds.
• 3. Seed control valve: Farmers can adjust the sowing rate at will, from 10-40 kg of seeds/rai and 8-50 kg of fertilizer/rai (1 rai = 1,600 m2).
• 4. Seed sprayer: The sprayer comprises of a sprayer hose, a three-way joint, and other hoses. The sprayer works when the seeds and wind meet and the seeds are blown away by the wind.

For the paddy seedling sowing machine to work efficiently, only clean paddy seeds should be used, free from straw, branchlets, or soil. To ensure that the hose does not become clogged, seeds should have short roots for easy spraying.

The sowing machine consumes some 100-200 cc of fuel/rai, while its consistency rate is 70-90 percent (Fig. 4). It has become very popular among paddy farmers, as it can be re-modified to its original form as a chemical sprayer.

Index of Images

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  Figure 1 Durable and Light Tank for Seeds Made of Rust-Free Aluminum.

• 

  Figure 2 Use of the Multi-Purpose Sowing Machine for Paddy Seedling.

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  Figure 3 Use of the Multi-Purpose Sowing Machine for Fertilizer Application.

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  Figure 4 Paddy Field Where the Multi-Purpose Sowing Machine Was Used.

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