Development of a Vertical Disc Push-Type Double-Row Carrot Seeder for Small-Scale Farmers

Abstract

This study was conducted to develop a push-type double-row carrot seeder.  Specifically, the study investigated the performance of the carrot seeder at different operating speeds in terms of field efficiency, field capacity, germination, and uniformity of seed discharge.  In addition, the study aimed to establish optimum operating speeds and compare the use of the device and manual sowing of carrot seeds. The device consists of a hopper, seed metering disc, soil opener, and seed coverer, grip handle, ground wheel, and power transmission; all attached to the frame. The metering disc is synchronized with the ground wheel as a source of power during operation.The design of the carrot seeder was prepared using AutoCAD software. It was fabricated using locally available materials. Three operating speeds (0.75, 1.0, and 1.25 m/s) were used during the evaluation. An area of 225 sq. m was used. It was divided into 9 plots with dimension of 50 cm by 500 cm. These plots accommodated the operating speeds with three replications.Results of evaluation showed that the performance of the newly developed carrot seeder was optimum at a forward speed of 1.0 m/s with a dropping efficiency of 96.7%, coefficient of variation of 1.7%, field efficiency of 88.2%, germination of 82.3%, and average number of seeds deposited of 2.5. The device was also found to be 76% faster than the conventional method of planting carrot seeds. For further improvement of the capacity of the device, an additional metering disc can be used.