Vol. 12, Special Issue 10 (2023)

Author(s):
R Swamy, R Jayaprakash, M Sridhar, S Naveen Kumar and RVT Balazzii Naaiik

Abstract:
Turmeric is an important commercial spice crop grown in India since ancient times and named as “Indian saffron”. In India turmeric was grown in an area of 2, 96,181 ha with a production of 11,78,750 tonnes during the year 2019-20. Telangana state ranks first in area and production of turmeric. In Telangana turmeric crop was grown in an area of 55,444 ha with a production of 3,86,596 tonnes during the year 2019-20 (www.indianspices.com). In Telangana state, the farmers are following conventional method of sowing for the turmeric crop which is tidy, time consuming and laborious process. The performance of tractor drawn 2-row raised bed turmeric semi-automatic planter was done to alleviate these problems and provide required technical information to the farmers. During the field evaluation, it was observed that the field capacity of 2-row raised bed turmeric semi-automatic planter (wheel based) as 0.083 ha h ^-1 at an average speed of 1.004 kmph with the field efficiency of 79.305 percent. The seed rate was observed as 1239 kg ha^-1 for 2-row raised bed turmeric semi-automatic planter. The fuel consumption was recorded as 5 l/h. As per the results the operating cost was obtained for 2-row raised bed turmeric semi-automatic planter with Rs. 98,692.92 per hectare. 2-row raised bed turmeric semi-automatic planter has shown satisfactory results for sowing of turmeric.