Low-Cost Tools to Sow Seeds
1.6 - Low-cost tools to sow seeds
Amira Radwan Ahmed, University of Guelph, Canada
Related video(s): Video demonstration of a hand sowing machine
Suggested citation for this chapter.
Ahmed, A.R. (2022) Low-cost tools to sow seeds. In Farmpedia, The Encyclopedia for Small Scale Farmers. Editor, M.N. Raizada, University of Guelph, Canada. farmpedia.org
Current Methods to Sow Seeds
The current methods used by small-scale farmers to sow seeds are low cost but may be laborious or unattainable for certain households. Current sowing methods involve 2-3 people working together, utilizing very few tools: usually a man will steer the cattle so they can create grooves in the soil while one or two women follow behind and drop the seeds into the grooves. However, as men in more rural communities are often unavailable, since they have other responsibilities such as migrant work to generate income, they may not be able to help the women steer the cattle. In certain cultures, there is a taboo against women handling cattle (Meyer-Rochow, 2009), and therefore they would be unable to sow seeds if a male is not present to help them. It is important when researching low-cost sowing tools to find tools that are durable, lightweight, and the correct height for women, so they are capable of sowing seeds independently. It is also important that these tools are adjustable for varying seed sizes, low-cost, and able to be shared amongst different households to share cost.
Low-Cost Tools to Sow Seeds
Seed sowing tools that are low-cost, efficient, and durable are crucial for subsistence farmers.
Electric sowing machines: An efficient option for a seed sowing tool is a motorized seed sowing machine.
The cost of such machines ranges from $60-90 USD for several vegetable crops and are available from Alibaba.com and Indiamart.com. This machine is made of metal and plastic and is around 55x25x60 cm in size, hence it is not too large and can be easily utilized by women farmers. This product takes away the labour of manually planting vegetables such as onions, tomatoes, and greens, along with small and medium seeds such as sesame, which would otherwise require bending over and digging pits for many hours a day. Utilizing an electric machine would allow a farmer to sow more than 10 acres daily. The machine shown in Figure 1 is easy to operate and portable, which would be very suitable for small areas and sloping fields. This would be very simple for women farmers to use, as it is small, durable, and simple to operate. However, as this is an electric machine, it is more expensive than a manual machine and may be unaffordable for small-scale farmers. This machinery is very simple to use, so an unskilled farmer is also able to handle it (Swapnil et al., 2017). Such machinery has great potential to increase planting productivity; it is made with raw materials, which saves a lot of cost in production and can be easily replicated in workshops (Swapnil et al., 2017). However, as this is a motorized machine, there is an added cost for the metering device and sensors.
Manual seed sowing machines: By searching Indiamart.com and Alibaba.com, there are some cheaper manual options that would be easily attainable and usable by women subsistence farmers.
On Indiamart.com, there is a "Really Agricultural Manual Seeder RAPL-MS-2D" listed for ₹1,600, which would convert to $19.67 USD (see link at the end of this chapter). As shown in Figure 2, this machine is manually operated and is suitable for cultivated soils, especially sandy soils, which would be ideal for subsistence farmers. This tool can be used to sow wheat, maize (corn), peanut (groundnut), beans, cotton, and more. The efficiency of this machine is at least 4 times greater than that of manual seeding. The price of this tool is much lower than the motorized seed sowing machine, making it more affordable for subsistence farmers; however, it is much less efficient. Compared to the 10 acres that could be sown using the motorized machine, this manual seeder will only allow one person to sow 8,000-10,000 m². This easy-to-use tool can be shared amongst households easily, and is very lightweight and simple in operation for women farmers.
Although these low-cost tools are very attainable for small-scale and subsistence farmers, they are mostly manual, which results in a slow and very laborious process, especially for women farmers, as they may be heavy or difficult to move around in remote areas. Manual sowing of small vegetable seeds is a slow and labour-intensive operation, which limits the production capacities of vegetable nurseries in India (Gaikwad and Sirohi, 2007). Although high-capacity, imported, motorized seeders are very efficient, they are also high in cost, and as a result have not been widely adopted by subsistence farmers.
Manual push-type planter: To increase efficiency while also maintaining low cost and attainable manual labour for women subsistence farmers, a manually operated push-type planter is ideal, as shown in Figure 3 below.
This machine has one wheel and is pushed by a farmer along a row to plant seeds. It is lightweight, affordable, and easy to use, as it controls the planting depth and the number of seeds planted in each hole. The Department of Farm Power and Machineries at the Bangladesh Agricultural University conducted research on the design and development of a low-cost planter for maize seeds, as shown in Figure 4 below.
This study explains that manual maize cultivation is extremely time-consuming, labour-intensive, and costly (Rabbani et al., 2016). This maize planter reduces these problems, as it consists of two runner wheels, a seed hopper, an inclined-plate-type seed metering device, a seed tube, a pair of bed formers, and a handle (Rabbani et al., 2016). The two runner wheels are used to move the planter forwards or backwards, and the handle is used to push the planter, which is manually operated to keep it cost effective. This planter was designed to maintain a desired seed rate of 25-30 kg/ha; its operational cost was tested at 410 Tk/ha, compared to a normal manual planting cost of 5,250 Tk/ha for maize, showing that this planter can save around 92% of the cost of maize planting. The pushing force required was only 90 N, which is quite low, meaning it is very attainable for women to operate (Rabbani et al., 2016). The planter is cost effective, easy to operate, simple in design, and light in weight. From the research conducted by Bangladesh Agricultural University, this planter is efficient, durable, and cost effective; however, it was only designed to plant maize, which can be noted as a disadvantage, since subsistence farmers would benefit from a cost-effective tool that is versatile enough to plant many different types of seeds. This product has not yet been sold to subsistence farmers, as it was designed and tested only as a prototype. The findings from this prototype show that this tool would be extremely beneficial to small-scale farmers, and the design could easily be picked up for production and sales by entrepreneurs.
Pneumatic seeder: Another effective low-cost tool for sowing seeds is a pneumatic seeder that was tested for its performance in sowing capsicum and tomato seeds in a plug tray, as shown in Figure 5.
This seeder is capable of making indents in one row of cells in a plug tray while simultaneously placing single seeds in the indented holes (Gaikwad and Sirohi, 2007). It transfers seed from the seed hopper into an air duct via an electrically controlled seeding shaft, can handle bulk quantities of seed, and can plant across large acreages efficiently while requiring low maintenance and upkeep. However, as this is a motorized machine, it would add cost and may require some skill to operate, which would not be ideal for small-scale farmers. The capacity of this seeder ranges from 38,000 to 60,000 planting holes. This tool is also still at the prototype stage, having been designed and researched for its efficiency and cost-effectiveness; if it were picked up for production by entrepreneurs, it could become cost effective at scale. The total cost of sowing 1,000 holes using a prototype precision plug seeder was found to be equivalent to around $0.034 USD, only 15.27% of the estimated cost of manual sowing (Gaikwad and Sirohi, 2007).
Conclusion
It is important that subsistence farmers have access to low-cost tools to sow seeds that can easily be operated by women, by being lightweight, simple in design, not extensively laborious, and, most importantly, efficient. On Indiamart.com and Alibaba.com, there are affordable manual options that would be easy to use and can be easily shared amongst households, such as hand sowing machines and manual seeders. Studies and research conducted by agricultural scientists in Bangladesh and India showcase some of the best low-cost tools for subsistence farmers, such as the push-type planter for maize establishment and the pneumatic seeder for sowing capsicum and tomato seeds in a plug tray. Both tools have proven to be more efficient and lower in cost than manual planting and seeding. Even though there are disadvantages to low-cost sowing tools, such as extensive manual labour and low rates of efficiency, these two seeders have been tested for performance and efficiency and have proven to be more effective than manual sowing or other low-cost tools. As mentioned previously, one of the most important factors in utilizing low-cost tools is the ability for them to be easily operated by women subsistence farmers, meaning that they must be light in weight, appropriate in height, and easy to move around in remote areas; the push-type planter for maize establishment is a great example of this. Low-cost tools may not always be the most efficient or effortless; however, in low-income, remote, and small-scale areas, they are a necessity, and finding the correct tool that minimizes the disadvantages of low-cost tools is crucial.
Picture Based Lesson to Train Farmers
Sub-Saharan Africa/Caribbean version
Links to Useful Resources
References
1. Gaikwad, B.B., & Sirohi, N.P.S. (2007). Design of a low-cost pneumatic seeder for nursery plug trays. Biosystems Engineering, 99(3), 322-329. Link
2. Meyer-Rochow, V.B. (2009). Food taboos: Their origins and purposes. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 5, 18. Link
3. Rabbani, M.A., Hossain, M.M., Asha, J.F., & Khan, N.A. (2016). Design and development of a low-cost planter for maize establishment. Journal of Science, Technology and Environment Informatics, 4(01), 270-279. Link
4. Swapnil, T., Kasturi, M.L., & Girish, P. (2017). Design and fabrication of seed sowing machine. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 4(9), 704-707. Link
5. Thomas, D. (2004). Low-cost tools for seed collection and seed sowing. Native Plants Journal, 5(1), 54-55. Link