Field evaluation of tractor-operated seeder for sowing mat type paddy nursery

Mat-type nursery having uniform growth is a prerequisite for mechanized paddy transplanting. Generally, this type of nursery is sown manually in the open field or in trays. It requires several simultaneous operations and hence is laborious and time-consuming. The performance of tractor-operated mat-type nursery seeder was evaluated at the Research Farm of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab during 2019–20 with an objective to obtain the finest speed of operation to get the uniform seed and soil spread. Study was carried out on three different types of soil (sandy loam, loam and silt loam) for three different forward speeds (1.7, 2.2 and 2.7 km/h). Results have shown that the soil type had a non-significant effect on the performance of the machine, whereas forward speed had significant (P