Department of Agricultural Engineering, CSKHPKV, Palampur-176 062 (H.P.), INDIA, e-mail of first author:
To mechanize the operation of paddy sowing in hills, PAD 6-rows manual transplanter was evaluated. Field capacity of the transplanter was 0.03–0.035 ha/h and labour requirement was 57–66 man-h/ha that was 2–3 times less over the traditional methods. The cost of operation was observed 73% and 54% less on use of the transplanter. Yield increase was in the range of 30–35%. It was also observed that a transplanter with lesser width of coverage would be more useful.
Paddy transplanter, manual transplanter, hill agriculture
