Tractor Driven Onion Transplanter

Innovator Profile

The task of transplanting onion seedlings manually is time consuming, labour intensive and toilsome process. Pandharinath Sarjerao More(66), a farmer and an innovator, has developed an affordable, semi-automatic transplanter for timely sowing of onion seedlings. He has also laid no restriction for anyone to copy and use his technology, and in fact wants the technology to diffuse widely for the betterment of the farmers.

Pandharinath has 33 acres of irrigated land in his village, Sangavi Bhusar where he grows sapodilla, guava, gooseberry, drumstick, sweet lime and mango. Few years back he grew sugarcane, soybean, wheat and onion but 2006 onwards, he switched over completely to horticulture. His village, with rich farmlands, is located on the banks of the river Godavari and is about 45 km from Shirdi. The area is rich in black soil and agriculture is the mainstay of the people.

His father, late Sarjerao More, was a trader of farm implements and had an agency in partnership dealing in Caterpillar farm machines. Pandharinath, the youngest among five siblings, graduated in arts from Fergusson College in Pune. During this period, he developed a keen acumen in mathematics and physical sciences, which helped him later in his analytical approach leading to refined innovations.

He was keen to pursue his MA, but his father asked him to return and take charge of the farm. In 1967, he married Meeradevi. He has two sons and one daughter. Both his sons have completed their respective diplomas in Mechanical engineering and Printing technology, and now assist him in the farm. His daughter, a state hockey champion, discontinued her diploma in engineering and is married to a chemical engineer posted at Ahmednagar.

Over the last five decades, Pandharinath has donned hats in multiple areas. He has developed solutions in the field of farm implements, agricultural machinery, electrical systems, horticulture, low-cost housing, rainwater harvesting and water conditioning systems.

Innovation Description

The task of transplanting onion seedlings manually is time consuming, labor intensive and toilsome process. Innovator Shri More, who is a farmer, has developed an affordable, semi-automatic transplanter for timely sowing of onion seedlings.

It is a tractor drawn semi - automatic Onion transplanter. It can perform three functions at a time viz. transplanting the onion, applying the fertilizer and making the irrigation channels. When the tractor moves forward, the star wheel type metering mechanism gets the drive to release the fertilizer in the tubes. The seedlings are delivered manually in the delivery chutes for planting. The inter-row and inter-plant spacing can be adjusted in the machine to a finer level. Two depth controlling wheels fitted on either ends of the equipment maintain the uniform depth of onion planting, which is kept at 1 cm. A channel forming ridger plough is mounted offset to the right end of the transplanter to form the irrigation channel simultaneously

Technical Specification

• Power required: More than 25hp tractor
• Working width: 1.5 metres (includes 8 furrow openers)
• Plant Spacing: 18 x 9 cm
• Depth of plantation: 1 cm
• Transplants 555950 seedlings per ha. (as against 420000 to 470000 in conventional planting)
• Manpower Requirement: 5 labours (1 driver + 4 labours)
• Capacity: 1 hectare per day (of 8 hours)
• Weight: 300-350 kg  (with fertilizer drilling arrangement)

Salient Features

• Uniform Planting (maintain row to row and plant to plant spacing)
• It gives 100 % of plant emergence
• Facilitates the mechanical weeding and harvesting
• It can also be used for drilling the cereals and pulses

IPR Status

Indian Patent Applied (No. 2353/MUM/2008).

(The innovator has declared it as open source technology for the farmers and small-scale industries. He provides design drawings and necessary guidance to those who wishes to manufacture)

Source: National Innovation Foundation