Design and Development of a 4 Row Mechanical Rice Transplanter

Abstract

This research aims to design, develop, and evaluate the performance of a 4-row mechanical rice transplanter to address labor shortages and reduce production costs for small farmers. The primary components include a power transmission system a four-bar linkage planting mechanism and a seedling supporting hook. Field performance was tested by varying the inclination angles of the seedling hook at 40, 45, 50 and 55 degrees. The results indicated that the 50-degree angle achieved the optimum performance with a minimum missing hill rate of 8%. The average planting depth ranged from 3 to 5 cm with an average of 3.86 seedlings per hill. The machine demonstrated a field capacity of 0.25 rai/hr and a field efficiency of 92%. Economic analysis showed that the prototype cost 5,000 THB to construct and reduced production costs by 700 THB per rai compared to manual transplanting, the break-even point at 1.76 rai per year. This mechanical rice transplanter proves to be a cost effective and viable solution for small rice farming.