Table of Contents

Fabrication of Multipurpose Agricultural Equipment report Download

ABSTRACT

Presently, small land holding farmers use work bulls mostly for land preparation. Their use can be increased and made more economical by using them for other farm operations such as ploughing, harrowing, fertilizer application, sowing and weeding. Improved hand tools will also facilitate farm work. Oxen can be used to pull a cart throughout the year which keeps them in training. Ploughs, ridgers, seeders and weeders are all seasonal implements. Manual method of seed planting, results in low seed placement, low crop yield and serious back ache for the farmer which limits the size of field that can be planted. The cost price of imported planters has gone beyond the purchasing power of most of our farmers. Farmers can do much to increase crop production especially grains if drudgery can be reduced or totally removed from their planting operations.
Generally cultivation of any crop involves various steps like seed selection, field preparation, fertilizing, sowing, irrigation, germination, thinning and filling, weed removal, vegetative stage, flowering stage, pesticide spraying, fruit or pod formation stage, harvesting and threshing. Farmer has to use various agricultural equipments and labors for caring out those steps, our purpose is to combine all the individual tools to provide farmers with multipurpose equipment which implements all the scientific farming techniques and specifications and suitable for all type of seed to seed cultivation with as minimum cost as possible. This project work is focused on the design and fabrication of multipurpose equipment which is used for land preparation, sowing, fertilizing, leveling and weed removal process. The multi-crop planter has the capability of delivering the seeds precisely with uniform depth in the furrow, and also with uniform spacing between the seeds .The seed planter consist of the main frame, adjustable handle, seed hopper, seed metering disc, adjustable furrow opener, adjustable furrow closer, drive wheels, seed tube . Seed metering disc was designed to be interchangeable to allow for sowing of the different varieties of seeds. The multipurpose agricultural equipment is very simple to use, the various adjustments are made with ease, and it is maintenance free.

Introduction

Agriculture has been the backbone of the Indian economy and it will continue to remain so for a long time. ―A man without food for three days will quarrel, for a week will fight and for a month or so will die‖. Agriculture is a branch of applied science. Agriculture is the science and art of farming including cultivating the soil, producing crops and raising livestock. It is the most important enterprise in the world. Over the years, agricultural practices have been carried out by small-holders cultivating between 2 to 3 hectare, using human labor and traditional tools such as wooden plough, yoke, leveler, harrow, mallot, spade, big sikle etc. These tools are used in land preparation, for sowing of seeds, weeding and harvesting.
Modem agricultural techniques and equipments are not used by small land holders because these equipments are too expensive and difficult to acquire. By adopting scientific farming methods we can get maximum yield and good quality crops which can save a farmer from going bankrupt but majority of farmers still uses primitive method of farming techniques due to lack of knowledge or lack of investment for utilizing modern equipment.
The use of hand tools for land cultivation is still predominant in India because tractors require resources that many Indian farmers do not have easy access to. The need for agricultural mechanization in India must therefore be assessed with a deeper understanding of the small holder farmer‘s activities. There is huge gap in technology adoption and Implement used with small and marginal farmers.
Sustainable improvement in the livelihoods of poor farmers in developing countries depends largely on the adoption of improved resource conserving cropping systems. While most of the necessary components already exist, information on the availability and performance of equipment is lacking and effective communication between farmers and agricultural research and development department is unsuccessful.

Seed Cum Fertilizer Drill

Seed drills, fitted with fertilizer dropping attachment, distribute the fertilizer uniformly on the ground. They deliver both the seeds and fertilizers simultaneously in an acceptable pattern. Seed cum fertilizer drill has a large seed box which is divided lengthwise into two compartments, one for seed and another for fertilizers distribution. It is called seed cum fertilizer drill. Such a drill has a large seed box which is dividend lengthwise into two compartments, one for seed and another for fertilizers. Seed drill may be classified as
1. Bullock drawn 2. Tractor drawn

Functions Of A Seed Cum Fertilizer Drill:

Seed cum fertilizer drill performs the following functions

To carry the seeds and fertilizer in separate compartments.
To open furrows at uniform depths
To meter the seeds and fertilizers
To deposit the seed and fertilizer in the furrows in an acceptable pattern
To cover the seed and fertilizer and compact the soil around the seed.

Objective of Our Project

The purpose of this project is to provide farmer with multipurpose equipment which implements all the scientific farming specifications and technology to get maximum yield and good quality crops by reducing investment and number of labor. There are many tractor powered equipment which are suitable and economical only for more than 5 acres of land. There are many hand pulled equipments which are only suitable for gardening purpose. Our objective of making animal powered equipment is suitable for 1 acre to 3 acres of land it is both economical and modernized with scientific methods. Majority of the Indian formers are the land owners of 1 to 3 acres. Hence it is most suitable for Indian economy and farming techniques.

Factors That Influenced Design And Fabrication Of Our Equipment

Scientific farming methods
Precision farming
Acceptance for all types of seed to seed farming
Fool proofing
Portability of the equipment: our equipment is completely flexible for easy assembly and disassembly.
Low cost

Fabrication of Multipurpose Agricultural Equipment report Download

Working

Generally cultivation of any crop involves various steps like seed selection, field preparation, fertilizing, sowing, irrigation, germination, thinning and filling, weed removal, vegetative stage, flowering stage, pesticide spraying, fruit or pod formation stage, harvesting and threshing. Farmer has to use various agricultural equipments and labors for caring out those steps, our purpose is to combine all the individual tools to form a multipurpose equipment which reduces the overall equipment cost and labor cost and also increases the yield of the crop by implementing scientific farming method.
Initially plough is connected to the beam using fasteners and tilling of the soil is performed, later during sowing seed drill is attached to the beam along with leveler for leveling of soil for sowing and fertilizing, the seed and fertilizer are stored in the primary seed and fertilizer box. The seeds and fertilizer are provide to the secondary seed box to maintain the level of seeds in the box and the disc picks up the seeds from the seed hopper and fertilizer hopper and drop them to the furrow through the seed tube. When the seed is dropped at a specific distance then seed covering device covers soil over the seed and after germination of seed takes place, weeds are also developed in the field. By replacing the seed drill by weeding tools for the same beam arrangement we can use it for weeding purposes. Weeding blade is attached in inclined position such that it uproots the weeds and simultaneously weedicide is applied on the field by the weedicide container attachment.

Application Of Our Equipment

1. Ploughing
2. Clod breaking
3. Leveling
4. Sowing
5. Fertilizing
6. Weeding
7. Applying weedicide

Advantages Of Our Equipment

1. Includes scientific forming techniques. Sequence spacing seed sowing machine has more advantages than regular seed sowing machine.
2. Involves precision forming and fool proofing technology. By using this machine, a single seed can be placed in the desired spacing, so that the wastage of the seeds will be reduced. This will reduce the thinning operation during the germination time.
3. Suitable for all types of seed to seed forming.
4. Low cost, it‘s the lowest priced multipurpose agricultural equipment ever built.
5. Multitasking, Both sowing and fertilizing is done simultaneously.
6. Initial investment is less and maintenance free.
7. Reduces labors because of automation
8. Reduces time consumptions, since it is a three row operated equipment.

Results and conclusion

Practically our multipurpose agricultural equipment can be used for tilling, fertilizing, sowing, leveling and also used for weed removal purposes. All the parts are connected in such a way that in every stage of agriculture the equipment can be rearranged or easily assembled with fasteners to required length and specifications of field operation.
Our team has successfully combined many ideas from various fields of mechanical engineering and agricultural knowledge to improve the yield and by reducing the labor effort and expenses. The whole idea of multipurpose equipment is a new concept, patentable and can be successfully implement in real life situations.

Scope for future work

By increasing the equipment strength and quality to its peak, we can have multipurpose agricultural equipment for life time usage. By providing hydraulics, gear arrangements and some minor adjustments the equipment can also be made as tractor powered equipment