Development of a Tractor Operated Sugarcane Cutter Planter for Mechanisation of Sugarcane Planting in Deep Furrows

Abstract

A tractor operated sugarcane cutter planter was designed and developed at ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow (IISR) for planting of sugarcane. It was equipped with deep furrow opener to facilitate furrow method of sugarcane planting. The designed planter consisted of deep furrow opener, sharp edged blades to cut whole cane into 350 mm long pieces as seed material, metering device for application of fertiliser and insecticide, soil covering shovels and tamping roller for pressing soil cover. It was a mounted type equipment rigidly attached with tractor through three-point linkage. Planter was pulled by the tractor and its cutting blades and fertiliser metering rollers were driven by tractor PTO shaft. Planter was field tested at IISR farm in sandy loam soil. At forward speed of 0.5 ms⁻¹, mean overlapping between two successive setts were 72 mm, which was acceptable and well within the desired overlapping range of 50–100 mm for subtropical India. Effective field capacity (output) of the planter was 0.16 ha h⁻¹. Its performance was compared with conventional method of planting. Depth of furrow was 250 mm in case of the planter as against 120 mm in conventional method. Mean soil covering depth over planted setts was 80 mm. Mean bud emergence improved by 3.7 % in case of the planter as compared to conventional planting. Only 25 labour-h ha⁻¹ labour is involved for planting with the developed planter which is about 11 times less than the conventional method of planting (280 labour-h ha⁻¹). Cost of planting operation was also saved by about 63 % using the developed planter.