Mechanization is needed to raise productivity in rain-fed lands and to increase cropping intensity in irrigated farms. Transplanting of seedlings is a labour intensive operation involving skill and working in a stooping posture in the field. There exists a need to mechanize this operation. A number of semi-automatic and automatic transplanters have been developed giving satisfactory performance but have not been successfully employed in India for a number of reasons including cost of machine, lack of technical know-how, complexity of the process as a whole, etc. An automatic onion transplanter is developed to help ease the problems stated. The machine is a combination of various mechanisms performing varying tasks all leading to the common goal of reduced labour effort requirement, increased speed, significant cost saving and increased accuracy and efficiency in the field. The transplanter consists of a tray holding arrangement, tray feeding mechanism using Geneva mechanism, finger-type pick-up system, transplanting mechanism, metering mechanism, planting mechanism. A few allied systems such as the ground wheel to power the machine, depth control arrangement are also provided. The onion seedlings are placed in trays which are picked up by the finger and placed into the metering mechanism. The opening and closing of the finger is ensured by the cam on the power shaft via a brake wire. The metering mechanism times the plantation of the seedlings and transfers the seedlings to planting arrangement sequentially. The planting mechanism consisting of furrow creates a crater in the soil wherein the seedling is placed and the profile of the shoe ensures that the seedling is appropriately covered with the soil in upright position. This mechanism has been found to be very useful and cheap compared to the other commercially available transplanting machines. Possibility of inter-culturing with smaller size machine is an added advantage over most of the other mach
