Laboratory Assessment of Tractor Operated Fertilizer Broadcaster Based on Operational Parameters

The production of the major crops increased many folds from last two decades. This tremendous increase in agriculture is attributed to factors such as high yield varieties of seed, more area allotted to the various crops, good quality of fertilizers and improved methods of cultivation etc. The consumption of fertilizers has also increased many folds. To meet this high demand of fertilizers, centrifugal spreaders become into existence and due to low cost of operation and simplicity of use, these centrifugal spreaders are very popular. Therefore, a setup was made to evaluate the performance of the machine in Indian conditions. The maximum uniformity of spread was at 0° angle of fins. Thecoefficient of variation with apparent swath width was varied from 32.18% to 92.92%. With overlapping, coefficient of variation was 7.05 at notch setting 4 (opening area 9.40cm²), disc speed of 400 rpm and fin angle of -10°. At setting N2S2A2, the effective swath width was 6.75 mwith 5.4 m left turn and 8.1 m right turn. The fertilizer application rate was 1500.42 kg h^-1 corresponding to this setting.