Department of Farm Power & Machinery, PAU, Ludhiana.
Potato cultivation is most labour intensive and thus costly. Therefore, most of the farming operation for this crop have been mechanized to reduce its cost of cultivation. Semi-automatic potato planters both revolving magazine and horizontal belt and cup feed types were introduced in early eighties. But it did not find much favour with the cultivators due to limited saving in labour. In order to meet these limitations, automatic potato planters were introduced in mid-nineties. A field study has been carried out to assess the status of users and field performance of these planters. More than three hundred machines are in operation currently in the state of Punjab and neighbouring states of Haryana and HP. These are two to seven year old. Most of the farmers using these machines have planted 35 to 175 acres with one machine during the current planting season (avg. 92.8 acres). They are using all the currently prevalent varieties of this region and use recommended seed rate (12-14q/acre) with row to row and plant to plant spacing of 60 cm x 20 cm. Most of the farmers use Ford tractors, although MF 35 can also be used for its operation. Farmers have used third low/1st high gear (field speed of 5–6 kmph) and have achieved an output of 8–10 acres/day for 10 hours working. Fuel consumption of 3 to 5 litres/acre have been reported. A crew of 2 to 4 labourers help in loading potatoes apart from one tractor driver to operate the machine efficiently. Field efficiency of 60–80% has been observed while using this machine. Machine has very low repair and replacement cost. Furrow openers and ridger share need to be replaced after 40 to 50 hrs and 150 to 250 hrs for sandy loam to loamy sand soils respectively. In addition, 3 to 5 planting mechanism springs need to be replaced every season. Machine saves labour by 60% in comparison to semi automatic machine and enhances the timeliness of operation.
