Performance Evaluation and Viability of a Pedestrian-type Low Land Cabbage Transplanter

Abstract

This article reports on the performance and costs of owning and operating a pedestrian-type low land cabbage transplanting machine. The tests were carried out on tin-tailing soil at MARDI Kundang Research Station. They were undertaken in view of the need to mechanize low land cabbage transplanting operation due to shortage of agricultural labor. The machine performed satisfactorily when operated on planting bed with or without the existence of the plastic mulch. Cabbage seedlings required bigger holes on the planting bed which is layered with plastic mulch in order to avoid mortality of seedlings due to the heat absorbed by the plastic. Based on the performances test, the results showed that the field efficiency were 91.36% and 92.21% for with and without plastic mulch respectively on the planting bed. On average, 407s were recorded for the machine to transplant the seedlings along 100m planting bed. Compared with the traditional method, the transplanter could give 82-85% saving in labor required to plant the seedlings. The calculated break-even annual use for the implement was 33 ha/year. The implement was projected to be viable to use for 1600 h/year.Keywords: low land cabbage; transplanter; machine performance; work rate, viability