DEVELOPMENT OF SEED DRILL MACHINE TO CULTIVATE RICE GRAINS IN HILLS BETWEEN FURROWS.

Rice is one of the strategic crops in Egypt and the world. Therefore, the main objective of the research was to modify and develop the seed drill to suit the cultivation of rice and add the digger to make a path for the cultivation area to direct the irrigation water. The modification and development were done in the workshop of the Rice Mechanization Center (RMC) in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, and field experiments were carried out on the rice variety "Sakha Super 300" with the planting seasons 2021 and 2022. The field experiments were carried out using the modified hill seed drill under four different planting forward speeds, namely, 2.55, 4.01, 6.11, and 8.38 km/h.; three different hills spacing between within the row, namely, 12.5, 15.5 and 17.5 cm; and three different cell volumes of feeding rollers namely, 354, 428 and 509 mm³ with a fixed depth of 6 mm. The results showed that when the forward speed of cultivation increased, the field capacity increased and power requirements, and a decrement percentage in field efficiency and energy consumption at any given load for modified hill drill. The minimum values of grain yield (3.45, 3.41, and 2.94 Mg/fed) were obtained at planting forward speed of 8.38 km/h., for grain cell volume of 354 mm³ under 12.5, 15, 17.5 cm hill spacing, respectively. However, the maximum values of grain yield (4.79, 4.74, and 4.34 Mg/fed) were obtained at planting forward speed 2.55 km/h., and grain cell volume of 509 mm³ under 12.5, 15, and 17.5 cm hill spacing, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]