Design and fabrication of an animal drawn upland rice planter.

Abstract

Upland rice is rice grown on dry land NERICA varieties, particularly NERICA 4, have been well adopted, grown continually in wide agro-ecological conditions in mid-altitude ecology (mainly between 800-1400 meters above Sea level). Rice acreage increased in Uganda from 1500ha to 50000ha by 2009 after NERICA introduction in 2002 and production. level increased from 123000 metric tons to 180000 metric tons. The literature of the existing upland rice planters (hand pulled and two-row animal drawn) is; the hand pulled rice planter causes back pain and hand muscle pain though it reduces on labor costs. The two-row animal drawn planter under-utilizes animal. This calls for need of a four-row animal drawn upland rice planter. Using basic engineering principles and some physical properties of rice such as, size, density and weight of the grain, the various components of the upland rice planter were designed and sized that is; the seed hopper, drive wheel, main frame, furrow opener, seed metering unit and delivery' tubes. The drive is from drive wheels to drive the roller shaft where seed plates are rigidly attached. The prototype of an upland rice planter was subjected to station field testing using oxen and NERICA 4 seeds where 3 replications were performed to evaluate efficiency. The amount of seeds delivered through delivery tubes was determined from which economic evaluation in the long run was done. Back pain and hand muscle pain while pulling the planter was reduced, draft power was utilized, and the number of hectares planted per day is expected to increase through designing an animal-drawn upland rice planter. The machine developed will improve crop and labor productivity. and boost farmers' income while releasing valuable time for other activities. The prot04ype should be adapted for use in Ugandan soil conditions. The technology should be utilized by a group of small scale farmers to boost upland rice production and rural development. The project embraces. the budget for the design, fabrication, testing and economic evaluation for the machine. The project costed 624,000 Uganda shillings.