Mechanizing Small-scale Potato Farming: Development and Performance Evaluation of Power Tiller Operated Potato Planter cum Fertilizer Applicator

Traditional potato planting methods are labour-intensive, time-consuming, and often lead to inconsistent planting, which reducing yield and quality. Animal-operated planters are slow and costly to maintain, while tractor-operated planters are designed for larger farms and are unfeasible to small farmers due to their high cost and technical requirements. A potato planter for use with a 9 hp power tiller has been developed. The performance of the developed planter was evaluated based on five key parameters: draft requirement, missing index, multiple index, effective field capacity, and fuel consumption. Results shows that the minimum draft was 0.79 kN at forward speed of 1.5 km/h and a depth of 80 mm. The lowest missing index (5.33%) and multiple index (4%) occurred at 1.5 km/h and 150 mm depth. The highest effective field capacity (0.124 ha/h) was achieved at 2.5 km/h and 80 mm depth, while the lowest (0.054 ha/h) was at 1.5 km/h and 120-150 mm depth. Fuel consumption was lowest at 13.96 l/ha when operating at 1.5 km/h and 80 mm depth.