Punjab had 2.73 million ha under paddy which is around 6% of total area under paddy in India and produced 11.00 million tone of rice contributing 25.4% rice to the central pool (2008–09). Transplanting and intercultural operations are still done manually. Paddy transplanting is highly labour intensive operation and requires around 238 man-h/ha. Shortage of manual labour led to introduction of paddy transplanters in the state. Around 550 transplanters of three different types were purchased by farmers and cooperative societies on subsidy. There were reports of some farmers not being able to adopt to mechanical transplanting either due to failure of mat type nursery or due to improper operation of machine. Therefore, a study was planned to undertake a detailed survey in the state of Punjab to access the kind of problems being faced by farmers in adapting to mechanical transplanting and status of adoption of mechanical transplanters in Punjab. It was concluded that training needs to be imparted for raising mat type nursery. Farmers’ shown interest to go far walk behind type machine from single wheel type machine and now to 4 wheel drive machine.
Paddy transplanter, Single Wheel Riding Type, Walk behind Type, Transplanter
