ఆగ్రోటెక్నాలజీ

నైరూప్య

Design and evaluation of Tef row seeder and fertilizer applicator

Geta Kidanemariam*, Solomon Tekeste, Abebe Teklu

Tef is a typical cereal produce and a staple food of Ethiopians. To produce this crop a great amount of time and labor are required from field preparation (plowing, harrowing, seeding and weeding, etc.) to harvesting and post harvesting operations. The grain is ground into flour, fermented and made into enjera a sour-dough type flat bread. Tef production needs six to eight times of plowing and then during the seeding operation the farmers use trampling and broadcasting. Farmers’ traditional practice is to broadcast at the rate of 40-50 kg.ha^-1. Now a day, new research results show that row planting increase yield by 200% and the recommended seeding rate becomes 3-5 kg.ha^-1. It would be very difficult to evenly distribute this rate because of the small seed size; weight of 1000 seeds is only 0.265gr. To achieve the new rate and combat the Farmers’ problem of planting, a hand-pulled drum-type Tef seeder was developed and tested at Bahirdar Agricultural Mechanization and Food Science Research Center. The three row seeder and fertilizer applicator has seeding rate of planting 3.5-5 kg.ha^-1 Tef seeds and applying 50-200 kg.ha^-1 fertilizer. Its capacity /coverage/ is 0.20 ha.hr^-1. This technology is appropriate and recommended for small scale Tef producers. It should be evaluated at different soil type and moisture level and promoted to different areas.