Mechanized Groundnut Cultivation in Dry Land of Odisha

Planters have not been used in large scale for planting of oil seed crops in Odisha. Generally farmers plant groundnut seeds behind a narrow country plough drawn by a pair of bullocks. A field experiment was conducted during Kharif season of 2011 in the farmers’ field of Dhenkanal district to conduct a comparative study on line sowing of groundnut by tractor operated multi-crop seed cum fertilizer planter and sowing behind the plough with different tillage methods. Inputs like seed variety and fertiliser remained same for both the planting methods. The average plant spacing in the field was 23 cm row to row and 13.1 cm plant to plant. The depth of placement of seed was 5–6 cm and 8–10 cm in case multi crop planter and behind the plough respectively. The seed rate was same in all the methods @ 120 kg ha⁻¹ whereas average plant population was 28 m⁻² and 26 m⁻² in case multi crop planter and behind the plough respectively. The field capacity was maximum 0.68 ha/h with field efficiency of 76.4% for larger plots. The yield of groundnut crop was maximum up to 1.4 t ha⁻¹ in case of land prepared by power tiller and sown by the planter.