Design and construction of a manual onion transplanter.

Abstract

The horticultural industry more than ever before, provides one of the most promising areas for increasing incomes in the rural areas, improving nutrition of the people, diversification of exports, provision of raw materials for agro-based industries and creation of employment especially for the youth. The export of horticultural products is currently one of the fastest growing export sub-sectors in the country, estimated at 20%. This implies an increase in production of various horticultural produce. In Uganda, onions are mainly grown in the Eastern and Western regions. The common onion planting methods include; sowing seed directly in the field where the crop is grown, sowing seed in a seedbed from which the plants will be transplanted later to the growing field, sowing seed in a seedbed from which sets are planted later into the growing field. The main objective of this project was to design and construct a manual onion seedling transplanter that can be used to transplant the seedlings with minimal labour and product damage. The importance of mechanically planting seedlings is due mainly to the fact that this is one of the surest and easiest methods of producing green onions or large bulbs at a minimum planting cost. The performance of the prototype was determined by the number of seedlings transplanted per minute, and the labour requirement. From the tests performed, it was established that only one person is required to transplant 132 seedlings per minute. The operator also maintains a good working posture whilst operating the transplanter.