Abstract:
Irish potatoes is one of the important food crop grown in the slopes of mount elgon and western parts of Uganda. They are rich sources of carbohydrates, and are grown on fertile soils for greater yield in Uganda (2011.) was approximately 450,000 mt, produced on approximately 65,000 ha with an average yield of 7 mt / ha. The small-scale farmers are capable of growing 1 to 4 acres, under natural Ugandan climatic conditions, and yields of between 80-100 bags per acre.
One of the major challenges for Irish potatoes production in Uganda is, small holder farmers lack an implement which ensures precisions in row planting, saves time and reduces drudgery in planting. The planting of Irish potatoes is labour intensive and time-consuming operation; estimated to take approximately 10 people to plant an acre of land in five hours. Small scale
farmers have very positively responded to planting Irish potatoes in rows from traditional methods.
through opening ridges manually and planting using hand
The main objective is to develop a two row animal drawn planter for Irish potatoes crops that meets farmers' planting requirements and the specific objectives are; to fabricate and evaluate the working efficiency, and performance of the proto-type.
Using basic engineering principles and some physical properties of Irish potatoes such as, size, density and weight of the tubers, the various components of groundnut planter will be designed that is, the seed hopper, Main frame, furrow opener, Seed metering mechanism and furrow covering assembly. The drive will be got from transport wheels to metering roller shaft by help of a chain and sprockets.
The proto-type was subjected to both on station and field testing;
The machine designed and constructed can improve crop and labour productivity and boost farmers' income while releasing valuable time for other activities. The proto-type can be adapted for use in Ugandan soil conditions. The technology should be utilized by a group small-scale farmers to boost Irish potatoes production and rural development.
The project proposal embraces the project schedule and budget for the design, fabrication, and evaluating the row planter for Irish potatoes. The project is estimated to cost 814,000 Uganda shillings.
