Agricultural Implements

ICAR-NRRI developed farm implements for rice mechanization

Rice is the foremost staple food of India ensuring national food and nutritional security. Rice farmers, however are facing challenges to increase production and income with increased cost of cultivation and labour shortage. With the emerging challenges of climate change and declining land-holding, the situation is expected to aggravate further. Farm mechanization is the only option to enhance farm productivity and profitability. Operation wise mechanization requirements of rice crop, especially for small land holdings, have been identified and matching implements have been developed at ICAR- National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. A brief description of each implement/technology is given below:

Twogang notch type disc harrow
is bullock drawn implement which is used for puddling the field. It has two gang with two notch type disc mounted over each hollow drum. It has provision for adding weight (sand) inside the drum to get better penetration in the soil.
 Drum type disc harrow is a bullock drawn implement used for puddling. It has two gang with three plane disc mounted over each hollow drum. Its field’s capacity is 0.4 hectare per hour. Two operations of float-harrow are sufficient to create field conditions ready for transplanting the seedlings. The puddling time is decreased from 42 hours which is required in caseof indigenous plough to 11 hours.
One row manual paddy seed drill is suitable for dry sowing of paddy seed in row spacing of 20 cm. Its field capacity is 0.008 to 0.01 hectare per hour
Two row manual paddy seed drill is a manually pulled seed drill. It is suitable for dry sowing of paddy seed at row spacing of 20 cm. It has cup type seed metering mechanism. Its field capacity is 0.019 to 0.022 hectare per hour.
Three row manual paddy seed drill has fluted roller type seed metering mechanism. It is suitable for dry sowing of paddy seed at row spacing of 20 cm. Its field capacity is 0.03-0.04 hectar e per hour. The machine saved seed and labours in sowing of crops along the rows that helped in weeding and intercultural operation
Bullock drawn three row seed drill is a three row seed drill having cup type seed metering mechanism pulled by a pair of bullock. It is suitable for sowing rice in dry field. Its field capacity is 0.15 hectare per hour.
Three row self propelled hill seeder is a three row seeder suitable for dry hill seeding of rice. It has 3.5 H.P. petrol start kerosene driven engine as a source of power. Its row to rowspacing is 20 cm. Its field capacity is 0.1 hectare per hour.
Power tiller operated seed drill for rice and pulse is a five row seed drill having fluted roller type seed metering mechanism. It is suitable for dry sowing of rice, wheat, greengram, and black gram etc. Its field capacity is 0.14 hectare per hour.
Power tiller operated seed drill for rice and Groundnut is a five row seed drill having plastic wheels with grooves on its periphery as seed metering mechanism. It is suitable for dry sowing rice and groundnut. Its row to row spacing is 25 cm. The field capacity of is 0.15 hectare per hour.
Ten row tractor drawn seed drill is suitable for seeding in dry field. The field capacity of the seed drill is 0.8 hectare per hour. Row to row distance can be adjusted. It saved 70% time and 55% labour cost and weeding cost as compared to broadcasting and transplanting method.
Three row manual puddle seeder is suitable for sowing of pre-germinated rice seed in puddled field. It has float on the front to avoid sinkage of the machine. The seed rate is controlled by varying the positioning of seed box. The field capacity of machine is 0.15 hectare per hour.
Four row manual drawn seeder (hyperboloid shape) is suitable for sowing sprouted paddy seed in puddled field at row spacing of 20 cm. Its field capacity is 0.030-0.034 hectare per hour.Sowing with drum seeder reduced seed rate by 60 – 65% as compared to broadcast seeding and reduced weeding cost about 65%.
Six row manual drum seeder (Cylindrical shape) is suitable for sowing of sprouted paddy seed in puddled field at row spacing of 20 cm. Its field capacity is 0.037 0.04 hectare per hour. Its unit cost is Rs. 6500. It reduced seed rate by 35-40% as compared to broadcast seeding and reduced weeding cost about 55%.
Eight row self propelled seeder is an eight row, engine operated paddy seeder. It is suitable for sowing of sprouted paddy seed in puddled field at row spacing of 20 cm. Its field capacity is 0.23-0.25 hectare per hour. Pre-germinated paddy seeding has economical and operational advantages over traditional planting methods because it eliminates nursery raising, transportation and physical damage to the seedlings.
NRRI four row manual rice transplanter is suitable for transplanting of 20-25 days old mat type rice seedlings. Row to row spacing is kept 24 cm. Its field capacity is 0.018-0.020 hectare per hour. It saves about 30-40% labour requirement and 40% cost in transplanting operation. Its unit cost is Rs. 8500
Finger Weeder can be used for upland as well as lowland rice. The operator moves the handle forward and backward so that the weeds get uprooted by both action. Its field capacity is 0.012 to 0.02 hectare per hour. Its unit cost is Rs. 250. It is cheap hand tool which reduced labour requirement by 35 – 40% and was found to be ergonomically suitable for farm women.
Star-Cono-Weeder is suitable for weed cutting,churning and mulching in wet land. Its width of cut is 10-15 cm. It covers one row. The stars and conical drums cut the weeds and churn them into the soil. It reduced labour requirement by 50- 75% and was found to be ergonomically suitable for local labour. Its field capacity is 0.013-0.017 hectare per hour. Its unit cost is Rs. 1850.
wheel finger weeder is suitable for weeding of row crops like upland rice, jute, maize and vegetable crops. It is manual pull and push type weeder. The weeder consists of a frame, awheel, a handle and five no of curved fingers. The spacing between fingers is adjustable. As the operator moves the handle to and fro the fingers push into the soil and loosen it and the weeds get uprooted. Field capacity of this implement is 0.022-0.025 hectare per hour and its unit cost is Rs. 600.
Single row power weeder is suitable for intercultural operations in upland rice. The machine consists of a petrol start kerosene run 1.03 KW engine, an engine mounting frame, the main frame, transmission system, jaw type clutch assembly, clutch control lever, handle, two transport wheels, rotary tine assembly, a support wheel and a rubber flap.. Its field capacity is 0.022 ha per hour.
Portable power operated paddy thresher
has wire loop type threshing drum. Rotational power to threshing drum is given by 1.0 hp single phase electric motor through belt and pulley. It is economical and suitable for threshing of paddy to small and marginal farmer. Its output is 3 to 4 q/h.
Manual paddywinnower is a simple manual winnowing machine to clean threshed paddy crop, suitable for small farmers and women friendly. Its capacity is around 100 kg/hr of clean paddy having cleaning efficiency of 96-98%.
Power Rice Winnower cum Cleaner is a power operated machine to clean threshed paddy crop. Its capacity is 500 kg/hr of clean paddy, having cleaning efficiency of 99%.
Power Rice Seed Cleaner is a power operated machine to clean threshed paddy crop for seed purpose. Its capacity is around  8q/hr of clean paddy, having cleaning efficiency of 99%.
Mini Paddy Parboiling Unit is a small size parboiling unit to produce quality parboiled rice by employing improved process. The process involves soaking the paddy at 75 OC for 3.5 hrs followed by open steaming for 30-45 minutes. The process ensures uniform parboiling, without any bad smell and produces light coloured rice with better consumer preference. It takes 5-6 hours to parboil 75 kg of paddy in one batch.
Mechanical Rice Dryer is a variable capacity batch dryer of 125-500 kg capacity. Both raw andparboiled paddy can be dried in this dryer. Drying is accomplished on thin layer principle. The air temperature can be maintained at 40 ± 2 OC throughout the dryingperiod. Paddy at moisture content of 20% was dried to 14% in 6-7 hrs using 10 kg of coal in the furnace.
Community Grain Dryer is a one ton capacity re-circulating type grain dryer using husk fired furnace. A portion of heat was supplemented as solar energy from the black painted tin roof top. Freshly harvested paddy from 24% moisture content could be dried up to 14% in 6.5 hours.
Solar and Bio Mass Fired Multi Crop Dryer is a batch dryer of 300 kg paddy holding capacity. Its main components are drying chamber (LSU type), solid fuel fired furnace with heat exchanger, solar air heaters and blower. Provision is mande to connect solar air heaters at the suction end of the blower to supplement with solar heat. One side of the drying chamber is provided withfor placing trays over the inverted ‘V’ troughs so that it can also work as a tray dryer for drying other food materials.
NRRI Domestic Solar Dryer is a cabinet type domestic solar dryer to dry 0.5 – 1 kg food material. The dryer is rectangular in shape. The top glazing is of 4 mm plane glass. The dryer is placed on a stand inclined at an angle of 30O to the horizontal. A sliding type loading tray enters from the top end of the dryer.
NRRI RCC Ring Bin is a permanent structure (mini silo), made from pre-cast RCC rings, having capacity of 5 quintals. It is completely rat proof and can be made air tight for fumigation. It is suitable for safe vvstorage of consumption paddy for 6-8 months.
Chaff and Husk Stove uses 1.2 kg of dry husk and burns continuously for 40 minutes on gasification principle.