Development of machine for producing precision seeding rope with paper for rice direct sowing

Direct seeding technology is characterized by labor and cost saving, high efficiency, etc., the current direct seeding machine, however, can not adapt well to the agronomic requirement of rice precision cultivation. So a prototype machine for producing precision seeding rice rope with paper was designed and manufactured. The machine consisted of paper tape feeding mechanism, seed metering mechanism, twisting mechanism and seed rope rolling mechanism. By the use of the machine, in factory seeds were firstly arranged on a paper tape of 4-7 cm wide in the setting hill distance and the number of seeds per hill, and then the paper tape with seeds was twisted into a seed rope, finally the seeding rope was rolled up and the roller of seeding rope with cylindrical shape was produced. In the field, the precision seeding rope made with paper was roller out in lines on surface of the tilled soil to achieve orderly planting of rice. The experimental results showed that the machine performed well, and coefficient of variation of drop-hill distance and the number of seeds per hill were less than 3.15% and 13.42%, respectively. And the rice yield was 10 290 kg/hm2, compared with that of traditional mechanical or manual transplanting there was no significant difference between them, but it was obviously greater than the average rice yield in China.