Innovation Description
Profile
Innovators Mr. Mansaram Suthar and Malaram Suthar are from Churu district of Rajasthan.
Purpose
While using cultivator based seed drill (shovel type furrow opener), seeds get stuck or are placed incorrectly due to the presence of weeds. In 2013, they came up with seed cum fertilizer drill with a single disc. They then developed disc plough and disc harrow based seed drills and found their performance to be better than cultivator based seed drills, preferring to use disc plough based seed drill with gram and mixed cropping.
Technical details
The brothers have developed a seed drill/seed cum fertilizer drill using a single gang of disc harrow as the furrow opener. This tractor mounted harrow seed drill consists of a gang of discs (11 in the present prototype), ground wheel, seed box, agitator for preventing bulging, vertical disc type seed metering mechanism, chain and sprocket for transmitting power from ground wheel to seed metering mechanism, seed box, fertilizer box, etc. The row to row spacing is maintained at 20 cm (average) while plant to plant spacing can be adjusted by the change in the speed of operation. For changing the depth of seed placement, angle of pipe can be changed. A covering has been attached to cover the seed, which otherwise get eaten by birds, rats or insects.
Performancecutting width: 6 feet (1.83 m); working depth: up to 3 to 4 inch (0.07 to 0.1 m); field capacity: 2 bigha per hour, fuel consumption: 2 lit per hour. Minimum 35 hp tractor is required for operation, with negligible extra maintenance cost.
Suggested Reading(s):
Frye, J. V. (1981).
Disc harrow. U.S. Patent No. 4,271,912. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Indiamart, (2020). Disc harrow seed drill. Retrieved on January 21, 2021, from
https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/disc-harrow-seed-drill-15337290497.htmlYouTube, (2015). Seed drill. Retrieved on January 21, 2021, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M1QPNZO7Ac
