Abstract:
The main objective of this study is design and fabrication of manual operated seedlings transplanting machine for small-scale farmers in Bahir Dar. To do so random sampling technique for plantation techniques and seedlings to be transplanted by the small- scale farmers were selected during case study. In Ethiopia, development and adoption of improved agricultural technologies including farm machinery has been a long term concern of agricultural experts, hence the automated and electric power driven equipment is limited to the few large-scale of farmer. A seedlings transplanter is agricultural device used transplant young seedling from one place to another place in cultivated filed. In Ethiopia, plantation of seedling is done by the traditional method, it is time consuming and tedious to accomplish the plantation task. This thesis work aims to design and fabricate coffer, neem and hop seedling transplanting machine. The designed and fabricated of seedlings transplanter is operated fully manually, by punch mechanism, For the instance study seedling is transplanted using traditional equipment such as hoe and trowel are, it is not comfort for the small-scale farmers, and its productivity of seedling is low. Therefore, these paper aims to adapt the new seedling transplanter agricultural machine to our country. The paper includes the CAD model of the machine and part, assembly drawings, assembling procedures, manufacturing process, maintenance methods and working principles. The seedling transplanter was designed and fabricated with locally available materials. It is affordable for every spinners and costs 10,581 Birr. The newly designed and developed seedling transplanter machine was tested and 12 different seedlings are transplanted within 3 minutes and 34 microsecond but the same number of seedlings was transplanted within 25 minutes during traditional transplanting method. Therefore, the newly developed seedling transplanter was advantageous over the existing traditional methods and machine. The transplanting capacity observed from trial is average theoretical field capacity is 0.00634 ha/hr, actual effective field capacity 0.00473 ha/hr, and field efficiency was 74.6%. The seedling transplanting machine has a simple structure , is convenient to use , and ensure that seedling are transplanted safely and the transplanting process is simple and has a unified standard. Based on the performance evaluation results, it is concluded that the prototype transplanting can be effectively and economically.