Manual transplanting, a pre-dominant practice in almost all the paddy growing areas in India, is laborious, burdensome, and has many expenses on raising, settling, and transplanting nursery. The transplanting process’s limitations motivated the replacement of conventional paddy transplanting methods. The study was divided into two phases. The first phase included laboratory testing of three levels of metering mechanisms, namely cell type (M1) with 10 cells grooved around a circular plate having a 13 cm diameter, inclined plate (M2) containing 24 U shaped cells provided on an 18 cm diameter plate, and fluted roller (M3) with 10 flutes on a 5 cm diameter shaft. The testing matrix included a missing index, multiple index, and seed damage with forward speeds (2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 km/h), and pre-germination levels of 24 h soaked (P1), 24 h pre-germinated (P2), and 36 h pre-germinated paddy seeds (P3)). The second phase included selecting the best combination obtained from the laboratory study and developing a new efficient planter for the puddled field. The inclined plate metering mechanism operating at 2.5 km/h for 24 h pre-germinated seeds was reported most efficient from the first phase. Therefore, a self-propelled 8-row planter equipped with an inclined plate metering mechanism having a row-to-row spacing of 22.5 cm was developed, fabricated, and evaluated in the puddled field. The designed planter was assessed on two different soils: sandy loom (ST1) and clay loom (ST2) and at two different hopper fill levels as ½ filled hopper (F1) and ¾ filled hopper (F2). The number of plants per square meter and hill-to-hill spacing was measured. The on-field evaluation revealed that the number of plants per square meter was non-significantly affected by the type of soil but was significantly affected by hopper fill.

Field evaluation of an air assisted orchard sprayer was carried out to determine the distribution pattern of the sprayer based on droplet density and volume of spray deposition using droplet analyzer on Indian gooseberry (Phyllanthus emblica) and kinnow (Rutaceae) orchard. Preliminary evaluation was conducted at 800, 100, 1200, 1400, 1600 and 2000 engine rpm and pressure was set at three different levels of pressure at minimum (4 kg/cm²), middle (10 kg/cm²) and maximum (12, 18, 20, 22, 24 kg/cm²). It was found that with increasing engine rpm and pressure, swath width, height of spray and discharge rate increased for both the nozzles. Based upon preliminary evaluation results, the sprayer was evaluated in orchard of Indian gooseberry at pressure of 22 kg/cm² and at an engine rpm of 1600, the maximum spray height and swath width was found to be 6.0 m of 13.8 m respectively. The sprayer was operated at pressure of 10 kg/cm² and an engine rpm of 1000, the maximum spray height and swath width was found to be 4.0 m and 11 m for kinnow plants respectively. The average volume median diameter (VMD) and average number median diameter (NMD) was found to be 152.12 μm and 51.71 for Indian gooseberry and 223.12 μm and 51.71 for kinnow respectively. The saving of labour and saving in cost of spraying was found to be 91.2%, 96.3%, 71.5% and 64.08%, 17.64%, (−3%) respectively as compared to tractor operated gun type sprayer, foot operated sprayer and tractor operated aero blast sprayer.