Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], June 22 (ANI): Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday visited the ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE), Bhopal,Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare said in an official statement.

The Minister addressed the scientists, students, and staff, commended the institute's contribution to agricultural development, and highlighted the need for accelerated development of farmer-friendly technologies and bringing developed technologies to farmers, especially for smallholder farmers.

According to the release, Chouhan reviewed the work done by the institute in recent past and stressed the need to identify the need of various regions of the country through the network of AICRPs of the institute and plan for mechanization interventions in next ten years so that country can take a giant leap towards Viksit Bharat Abhiyan.

The Minister stressed the need to develop small engine operated or machinery operated by alternative sources of energy and promote apart from sensor based systems to have inclusive development of all section of farmers. He desired to organize Farmer's fair at different locations in the country and a brain storming session with all stakeholders to plan the roadmap of the mechanization of the country in near future. Apart from that he emphasized the importance of food safety, soil health, and effective lab-to-land transfer of technologies.

Chouhan also witnessed and appreciated the recently developed technologies and products of the institute.

The event was graced by the presence of ML Jat, Secretary (DARE) & Director General, ICAR; SN Jha, Deputy Director General (Engineering); AK Nayak, DDG (Extension); CR Mehta, Director, ICAR-CIAE; and M Mohanty, Director, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal.

ICAR-CIAE tractor operated plastic mulch layer-cum-planter - Manual operations of raised bed forming, drip lateral and plastic mulch laying, and planting seeds in a plastic mulch are drudgery prone, time consuming and laborious activities, which requires about 29 man-days/ha.

A tractor-operated plastic mulch layer-cum-planter has been developed to perform these operations simultaneously.

The tractor's hydraulic system is used to operate eccentric slider crank mechanism with the help of hydraulic motor (385 Nm) and chain and sprocket transmission system, whereas the vacuum is created in housing of the seed metering mechanism through aspirator blower operated by tractor PTO.

The eccentric slider crank mechanism transmits the rotary motion of driving disc into vertical motion of slider crank through connecting rod and keeps the 'D' profile at the end of punch planting mechanism, which opens in the soil.

The pneumatic seed metering plate and eccentric slider crank mechanism are synchronized in such a way that the seed picked by pneumatic metering plate gets dropped in planting jaws, which remains closed by holding seed and opens and place seed after entering into the plastic mulch by means of slider crank mechanism.

The effective field capacity and field efficiency of equipment are 0.2 ha/h and 74%, respectively at forward speed of 1.7 km/h and operational width of 1 m.The total cost and operational cost of equipment are Rs 300,000/- and Rs 1500/h, respectively. The payback period of equipment is 1.9 years (444 h) and break-even point is 70 h/year, as per the release.

The provision is given in the equipment to match row to row and plant to plant spacing from 0.5 to 0.9 m and from 0.2 to 0.6 m, respectively by mechanical means.

It can save 26 man-days/ha (89%) and Rs 6,600/- per hectare (43%) in cost of operation as compared to existing drip lateral-cum-plastic mulch laying machine.

It is suitable for planting high value crops in plastic much such as melons, cucumber, sweet corn, baby corn, green pea, okra, beans, etc. (ANI)