The Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), organized a field demonstration on 30.05.2024 “Tractor Operated Mat Type Nursery Seeder” at village Sherpur Khurd, Jagraon.
Impressed by the machine’s performance, Dr Satbir Singh Gosal, Vice-Chancellor, PAU, said that the machine can help in the timely sowing of mat-type paddy nursery, thereby, helping in the large-scale adoption of mechanical transplantation of paddy in the state. As it is an appropriate time for mechanization of labor-intensive paddy transplanting work, Mat Type Nursery Sowing Seeder can prove to be a fillip for it, he observed.
Dr Ajmer Singh Dhatt, Director of Research, lauded the large-scale adoption of the machine by the farmers.
Dr MS Bhullar, Director of Extension Education, said that extension efforts will be made through KVKs to further popularize this machine.
Dr Manjeet Singh, Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, said that the machine has filled the gap in the mechanization of paddy crop. The machine has significantly reduced the labour requirement in harsh weather condition of the season, he added.
Dr Gursahib Singh Manes, Additional Director of Research (Farm Mechanization), who is also the co-inventor of the machine, informed that two persons can plant mat type nursery for two hectares in one day. “The tractor operated mat type nursery seeder is a multi-functional machine that can accomplish all the operations in one go and has made the whole process faster, easy and labour/cost-effective,” he said. “With the machine, 10-12 kg of seed is sown for raising nursery for one-acre paddy field. In a single day, the machine can sow mat type nursery which is sufficient for transplantation in 125-150 acres of paddy field area. There is a cost saving of 70-75% and labour saving of 80-85% with mat-type nursery seeder as compared to the conventional manual method of mat-type nursery sowing,” he added.
Dr Anoop Kumar Dixit, Head, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, visited the field demonstration where this machine is being operated by a custom operator Avtar Singh. During the current kharif season, he has already sown mat-type nursery on an area of 600 acres, and still machine will run for 15 more days, he told. Further, Dr Dixit, while explaining the functions of the machine, said that the technology has been developed under AICRP on FIM, PAU, Ludhiana centre.
Two scientists Dr Aseem Verma and Er Arshdeep Singh from the Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering explained the major technical points for the successful working of the machine in the field. The nursery raised with the machine was also shown.
Randhir Singh Rajarh from M/s Rajarh Agricultural Works Mullanpur, who has signed MoU with PAU for the commercialization of the machine, informed that he has already sold 12 such machines in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and UP. A farmer Harnek Singh, who has adopted this technology last year, was fully satisfied with the performance of the machine and informed that he got higher paddy yield by adopting the mechanization of paddy crop. Also present during the demonstration were Dr Jasvir Singh Gill, Scientist (Agronomy), and Er Rakesh Kumar.
Read more: https://www.pau.edu/index.php?_act=manageEvent&DO=viewEventDetail&dataE=datae&intID=9147
