Costs of Sowing Halved : New Mechanized Seeder and Transplanter for Paddy Farmers from Hayleys Sri Lanka

20th November 2009, www.dailynews.lk

Two new mechanical devices to be introduced to farmers by Hayleys Agro Products Limited (HAPL) could substantially reduce costs of crop establishment and significantly improve yields of rice paddy from the current Maha and forthcoming Yala seasons.

Locally developed and fabricated with inputs from the Farm Mechanisation Research Centre (FMRC) of the Department of Agriculture, a mechanised Seeder ready for use from Maha 2009-10 will reduce the seed rate required per hectare of paddy by more than half, while a mechanised Transplanter expected to be commercially available for the next Yala season would also halve the cost of manual transplantation, the company said.

The use of each of these machines in crop establishment, the only area currently not mechanised in Sri Lanka, would increase paddy yields by up to 15 percent and make pest and weed management very much easier, Hayleys Group Director and Agri Sector Head Rizvi Zaheed said.

“These new machines are good examples of meaningful mechanisation particularly in the context of labour shortages in many paddy cultivating areas, and the need to reduce costs, improve yields and produce better quality,” Zaheed said.

The Hayleys Agrotech Seeder, a device that resembles a lawn mower, will enable farmers to return to row seeding, a better agronomic practice than the direct seeding widely prevalent, HAPL Director/CEO Upali Gangoda said.

Direct seeding consumes about 100 kg of seed per hectare, whereas row seeding by machine requires only 40 to 50 kg and enables one worker to seed three or four acres a day, he said.

“Fifty years ago and beyond, transplanting paddy from nurseries to the fields was the predominant practice,” Gangoda said. “Sadly, labour shortages have resulted in 95 percent of today’s paddy crops being established through direct sowing, and only five percent is transplanted.”

Mechanised row seeding practised widely in Vietnam, India and the Philippines, is a more productive alternative to sowing and makes for better crop management, higher labour productivity and better yields, he said.

To promote the even better practice of transplanting 18 to 20 day old paddy plants instead of direct sowing or row seeding, Hayleys Agro is currently in the final stages of testing a mechanised Transplanter also developed under the Agrotech range.

The diesel-powered machine would reduce the cost of manual transplanting of Rs 6,500 to Rs 7,000 per acre to Rs 3,000 per acre, and also substantially reduce harvesting costs, Gangoda disclosed.

“We expect to have this exciting new machine ready for deployment by March 2010, in time for the Yala season,” he said.