~ 452 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2019; 8(2): 452-454 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2019; 8(2): 452-454 Received: 21-01-2019 Accepted: 25-02-2019 Murali M Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, CAE, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka, India M Anantachar Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, CAE, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka, India B Devojee Ph. D Research scholar, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, SVCAET, IGKV, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India Correspondence Murali M Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, CAE, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka, India Performance evaluation of four row self propelled paddy transplanter for black cotton soil Murali M, M Anantachar and B Devojee Abstract Field Trials were conducted at gagavathi in during kharif 2014 with view to reduce cost of transplanting operation of paddy crop. A self propelled four row paddy transplanter (Kubato Model) was used for the transplanting purpose. The performance of the mechanical self propelled paddy transplanter was found quite satisfactory. The field capacity, field efficiency and fuel consumption of the four row self propelled paddy transplanter were 0.1 ha/h, 65% and 10 lit/ha, respectively. The cost of mechanical transplanting was found to be 1500 Rs/ha as compared to Rs 5000 Rs/ha as in case of traditional method of manual transplanting followed by farmers in the region. Crop yield in both manual and mechanical transplanting was found at par with average grain yield. The machine was found to be farmer friendly and feasible in terms of time, money and labour requirement as compared to manual method transplanting of paddy. Keywords: mechanized transplanting, four row paddy transplanter, field capacity, field efficiency Introduction Rice is one of the most important crop and staple food of millions of people which is grown in many countries of the world. The total area planted under rice crop in India is 42.20 million ha, which is the largest in the world as against the total area of 148.40 million ha (Anon., 2012) [1] . Paddy is largely grown traditionally by manual transplanting. Manual transplanting requires a lot of labours besides involving drudgery and is also very expensive. Scarcity of labours is another major problem in some paddy growing area of the country. Manual transplanting takes about 250-300 man hours/ha which is roughly about 25 per cent of the total labour requirement of the crop (Behera et al., 2009) [5] . Hence, less expensive, farmer friendly and labour saving method of paddy transplanting is urgently needed. The mechanical transplanting of paddy has been considered the most promising option, as it saves labour, ensures timely transplanting and attains optimum plant density that contributes to high productivity. Keeping this in view, the study was conducted on self propelled four row paddy transplanter to minimize the cost of transplanting of paddy crop through farm mechanization. Mechanical transplanter using self- propelled transplanter has been considered as the most promising option because it saves labour to the tune of 90 per cent of that required in manual transplanting, minimizes stress and drudgery, ensures timely transplanting and attains optimum plant density contributing to higher productivity (Behera and varsheny, 2003) [3] . Material and Methods On farm testing and field demonstrations were conducted at Krishi Vigyan Kendra and Agriculture Research Station, kopal Dist. Bhandara gagavathi during kharif 2014-2015 to study the economic feasibility of self-propelled four row paddy transplanter for transplanting of paddy. The field trials/field demonstrations were also carried out on farmers’ field. The soil of the experimental site was block soil. The experiment consisted of evaluation of field performance of the mechanical transplanter in comparison with manual transplanting. For this a four row self-propelled paddy transplanter (PF4555) was used. The detailed technical specifications of self-propelled four row paddy transplanter used are shown in Table 1. Speed of operation, width of working, total time required to cover the area and the fuel consumption were recorded. Mechanical transplanting requires a special type of seedlings raised on mat type nursery. Raised beds of 58 cm length, 28 cm width and 19 cm height were prepared. Soil was sieved and mixed with equal proportion of sand and farm yard manure and spread over the polythene sheet to a depth of 1.9 cm. Sprouted seeds were spread uniformly on the polythene sheet and pressed gently. They were covered with paddy straw and watered for four days. After the