Cost Effective Agricultural Machinery: Design, fabrication and economic feasibility of self propelled multi crop seed drill for adoption of small farmers

Development in agricultural mechanization can increase the crop production by decreasing the cost of production. The adoption of farm mechanization in Pakistan is very slow due to small land holdings and higher prices of farm machinery. According to a study, 79% farmers of Pakistan have less than 5 ha of land, implying that the owner’s purchasing power doesn’t allow him to use advance machinery which no doubt helps to improve the yields gigantically. This book is a detailed account of development of self propelled multi crop seed drill (SMSD) for small famers of Pakistan which is low cost, viable, efficient, and multi operational to minimize input and maximize farm profit. The sowing cost using SMSD is 208 PKRS per hectare while tractor mounted seed drill cost is about 791 PKRS per hectare. Furthermore, this machine is little step towards the cost reduction of basic agricultural machinery.