Development of Tractor Drawn Single Row Irish Potato Planter with Fertilizer Applicator

Irish potato planting in Nigeria has been accomplished by traditional method of planting potato tubers on the field, which is labor intensive, time consuming and produce low yields of potato per hectare. This is due to lack of suitable row planting machine. In order to solve the above problem, this study aimed to develop a prototype of Irish potato planter with fertilizer applicator which is capable of planting potato tubers in rows at desired depth and spacing and applying fertilizer simultaneously. The developed tractor drawn single row Irish potato planter with fertilizer applicator consists of main frame, tuber hopper, fertilizer hopper, cup feed seed metering mechanism, shovel type furrow opener, ground wheel, seed tube and spring loaded furrow cover. This machine has an edge over existing irish potato planting machine with additional of spring loaded furrow opener, rubber coated metering cup to avoid injuring of the tubers and incorporation of fertilizer applicator which saves the farmer additional cost of applying fertilizer after planting. The performances of tractor drawn single row Irish potato planter with fertilizer applicator was evaluated in the laboratory and field at a tractor walking speed of 3.5 km/hr and moisture content of 13.41%. At the tractor speed of 3.5 km/hr when the moisture content was 13.41%; the average depth of planting was 133.3 mm, the average intra row spacing of the planted potato seedling was 291.2 mm, the average number of potato per drop of the planted potato seedling was 1, quantity of fertilizer per drop was 10.6 g, the average percentage of missing was 2.46%, the average height of ridge was 285.7 mm, the average depth of fertilizer dropping was 133.3 mm, the average fuel consumption was 10.3 l/ha and the average field efficiency was 75.04%. The implement is recommended for small scale and medium scale farmers.