Design and Fabrication of a Semi-Automatic Cassava Planter

A single-row semi-automatic cassava planter was developed at the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. The planter consists of a hopper, a roller-picker, cutting unit, a belt conveyor acting as the metering device, a double disc furrow opener, a double disc furrow coverer, a gear transmission system, the frame and the land wheels. The planter is driven by a tractor of 41 horsepower (30.6 kW). The field test showed that the semi-automatic cassava planter satisfied the functional requirements of a planter. The planter was found suitable at a functional efficiency of 95.45%. The evaluation of the performance of the planter to determine its relationship with the forward speeds, land preparation, and lug arrangement of rigid wheel will further be carried out. This development will reduce the cost of planting by eliminating the extra labour required behind the tractor by the presently available commercial planters. It will also increase cassava production, reduce the present drudgery in planting cassava as well as attracting the youths into agricultural production.