BARI Seeder
In Bangladesh farmers are sown some seeds in line like maize, potato etc. Hand sowing of seeds is time consuming, laborious and costly. Line sowing enables easy removal of weeds, plants get more light and air and overall production is increased. Even after having so much facilities of line sowing, it has not been popular among farmers. To sow seeds in lines a furrow is to be created. Then seeds are to be placed in lines and the furrow is to be filled with soil. The method has not been popular in sowing of seeds, as line sowing is difficult and time consuming. At present power tillers are being used massively in cultivation of land. Power tiller operated seed sowing machine has been developed so that seeds can be sown using these power tillers. BARI has developed two types of seeder machine. Paddy, wheat, maze, jute, oil seed and pulses can be sown in lines by seeder. The seeder can be used for sowing with full tillage, strip tillage and zero tillage.

Advantages

• Sows seeds in lines to the desired depth and spacing
• Ensures optimum seed germination and desired plant population
• Save about 10–40% seeds compared to the conventional hand planting whereas, increases crop yield by about 10–15%
• Facilitates the use of a mechanical weeder as the plants grow in lines
• Line sowing by the machine saves about 25% time and cost of different intercultural operations

Specifications

• Operated by a two-wheeled tractor
• Dimension : 1200 mm × 650 mm × 750 mm for Model-1
  • 1200 mm × 400 mm × 270 mm for Model-2
    • Weight: 150 kg
  • Number of rows : 6

• Source of power: 9.0–12.0 kW Diesel engine (two-wheeled tractor’s engine)

• Width : 600–1200 mm
• Depth : 20 – 40 mm (adjustable)
• Forward speed : 2.00–2.25 km/h
• Price : Tk.70, 000 (US $ 875) (without two wheeled tractor)

 Working Principle
The seeder has to be attached with the power tiller backside by means of nut bolt after removing the rotavator of power tiller. Distance from one line to another, depth and the appropriate seed plate has to be selected according to seed size of crops. The bar joined with the roller has several holes, moderation of which enables reducing or increasing the depth of ploughing. The power tiller has to be taken at north or south side of the land and seeds have to be poured in the seed-hopper. For ploughing, there are 48 blades which move 450-500 times per minute. Before operating the machine in the field, the sprocket of the seeder has to be attached with the sprocket of the wheels by means of chain. At the beginning of operating, the gear of the rotating blades has to be got started. The machine has to start operation at a speed of 2 to 2.5 km per hour keeping the power tiller at first or second gear. When the machine moves forward, then seed plates rationally start falling seeds from the seed hopper. After that seeds fall into the furrow, created by furrow openers through a pipe. It is to be observed whether seeds are being poured in lines properly through a plastic tube. After reaching the end of the land, the seeder needs an about turn for which the rear part of the seeder has to be raised and started sowing again in the next row. It is to be observed carefully wheather the metering device moving properly or not. This process is continued.
Field Test Results

• Crops: wheat, maize, jute, paddy, oil seeds and pulses
• Field capacity: 0.16–0.25 ha/h (40-60 decimel/h)
• Field efficiency: 85%

• Operating cost:  2500 Tk/ha by seeder, 6000 Tk/ha by conventional method