Precision attributes based index for the selection of efficient agricultural machinery

Development and introduction of high capacity, precise, reliable and energy efficient machinery/equipment is the need for judicious use of inputs. Manufacturing of agricultural machinery in India is varied in nature and starts from village artisans, tiny units, cottage to small scale industries, organized tractor and agricultural machinery manufacturers including energy and processing machinery industry. Precision in application rates for higher input-use efficiency can be achieved only by improving the designs of the existing machinery/equipment. Precision index (PI) of machine/equipment is based on its capability to perform a given task in an accurate manner. It is a worthwhile attribute to compare the performance of different equipment and operations to enhance the productivity of a given farm. The purpose of study was to propose an index, that is, PI to select efficient and precise machine/equipment for the farmers. PI values were calculated for three types of machinery namely zero seed cum fertilizer drills, planters and spraying machines. It was concluded that drill Make 2, tested in the year 2004, was having the highest PI value, that is, 0.97 or 97% followed by drill Make 1 having PI value 0.95 or 95% tested in the same year. Drill Make 5 tested in the year 2013 was having minimum PI value, that is, 0.80 or 80%. PI value for happy seeder machine was 0.88 or 88%. During the testing of multi-crop planter in year 2014, the variability of doubling attribute was more, that is, 28% followed by missing having 20% value and produced influence on PI which was observed to be 0.83 or 83%. PI of semi-automatic and automatic potato planter was found to be 0.70 and 0.80, respectively. The value was not much satisfactory and could be ranked under average category. PI of electrostatic sprayer mounted with single as well as twin nozzle was observed to be the highest, that is, 0.89 followed by PI of air assisted sprayer with single and double nozzle, that is, 0.83 and 0.84, respectively. Key words: Precision index, zero till seed cum fertilizer drill, happy seeder, spraying machines, planting machines.