Performance evaluation of different sowing equipment's of Maize (Zea mays) crop in selected village of Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, India

In India Maize (Zea mays) is the most important cereal crop, grown throughput the year. Farm mechanization plays an important role in enhancing the production and productivity of crops due to timeliness of operations precision in the application of the seed and other input. In the present study different sowing methods/equipment's (seed drill, tractor drawn dibbler and manual sowing) of maize crop was evaluated in 31 villages of Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh during 2014–15. The different sowing method was evaluated on the basis of cost of operation, labour requirement, seed rate and field efficiency. The cost of operation in case of tractor drawn dibbler and manual sowing method has shown higher than the seed drill sowing method. The labour requirement using seed drill was (one) very less as compared to manual (6) and dibbler (5). The seed rate observed in the fields using seed drill with fluted roller metering mechanism was 30 kg/ha and seed drill with cup feed type metering mechanism was 23kg/ha whereas for manual and dibbler it was 25 and 20 kg/ha, respectively. The results showed that the cost of operation of tractor drawn seed drill per hour was Rs. 502 and for tractor drawn dibbler it was Rs.739. The cost of tractor drawn seed drill per acre was Rs. 334 and for tractor drawn dibbler it was Rs. 365. The field capacity of a seed drill was 0.6 ha/h whereas for dibbler and manual it was 0.8 and 0.24 ha/h, respectively. The study revealed that selection of appropriate sowing method reduced cost of operation, seed rate and enhanced field efficiency and increased production and productivity of maize crop.