Journal of Experimental Agriculture International

Ginger rhizome planting remains a challenge for farmers in India due to the lack of suitable machinery. Farmers continue to rely on traditional planting methods, which are time-consuming, labour-intensive, and associated with significant human drudgery and a high demand for manual labour. India is one of the leading producers of spices in the world, with ginger accounting for nearly 43 per cent of global production. During 2022-2023, Kerala produced 51.18 million tonnes of ginger over an area of 2.58 thousand hectares, achieving a productivity of 19,820 kg ha⁻¹. One of the major constraints in ginger cultivation is the scarcity of labour during peak sowing and harvesting periods. Conventional planting methods are labour-intensive and require a higher seed rate, often resulting in uneven spacing and the need for thinning. Precision planting offers an effective solution by ensuring uniform seed placement and proper planting depth, thereby improving crop establishment and yield. Considering these challenges, an experimental setup was designed and developed, consisting of a main frame, seed hopper, conveying chain fitted with cells, conveyor belt, 1 hp AC motor, 450 W DC motor, and a variable frequency drive (VFD). The performance of the system was evaluated using independent variables such as forward speed (S), chain speed (V), and cell size (C). The selected levels for experimentation included cell sizes of 40, 50, and 60 mm; chain speeds of 128±10, 138±10, and 149±10 rpm; and forward speeds of 1, 1.5, and 2 km h⁻¹. The performance parameters studied were picking efficiency, hill-to-hill spacing, missing index, multiple index, quality of feed index, and cell fill efficiency. Statistical analysis and optimization of the experimental data indicated that the combination of 50 mm cell size, 138±10 rpm chain speed, and 1 km h⁻¹ forward speed was the optimum operating condition for achieving the recommended hill-to-hill spacing of 15 - 20 cm. Under these optimized conditions, the machine recorded a missing index of 3.73 per cent, multiple index of 2.46 per cent, quality of feed index of 93.8 per cent, and cell fill efficiency of 95.00 per cent. The study suggests that the selected combination of forward speed, cell size and chain speed contributed to higher cell fill efficiency under the laboratory conditions evaluated.