A performance evaluation of Yanmar ARP-8 paddy transplanter under farmers field conditions with seedling mats grown in plastic tray and on plastic sheet was carried out in Lahore district, during the 1990 and 1991 paddy sowing seasons. The fields were prepared by farmers using conventional tillage practices. Basmati variety seedlings of 20-38 days old were used in this study. Field results reveal that, on average, the number of missing hills with seedlings grown in plastic trays and plastic sheets were about 5 and was within the allowable limit of transplanter performance standard. The rate of work was 0.32 to 0.40 ha/h under different field conditions. No break downs, were noted during field operations. The machine maneuverability in crossing field bunds and turning was found satisfactory. The control was accessible to the operator during field operation. The cost of mechancial transplanting using nursery seedlings grown in trays was high at (Rs. 1 500/ha) 50 higher than the present manual transplanting costs (Rs. 1 000/ha). The labour requirement for mechanical transplanting (6 man-days/ha) was observed one-third of manual transplanting (17 man-days/ha). the operating cost of the transplanter was minimum (Rs. 850/ha). The transplanting cost includes the expenditure incurred on all operations, performed from nursery raising until the transplanting except land preparation. A 30 increase in yield was recorded in crop transplanted by transplanter compared to manual transplanting. A laboratory evaluation of the transplanter was also carried out using 20 and 30 days old seedlings of Dr-83 and Basmati 385, paddy varieties grown on plastic sheet. The transplanter was operated at three PTO settings of 80, 70 and 60 to have hill spacing of 14, 16 and 18 cm, respectively. The effect of paddy variety and age of seedlings were observed on number of seedlings per hill at significant level of 99 and 99.9, respectively. Similarly, the effect of paddy variety was observed on percent of missing hills at 95 level of significance. On the basis of test results obtained in the field and laboratory, mechanical transplanting using seedlings grown on plastic sheet seems most feasible as it has not only reduced the cost of transplanting (Rs. 850/ha) to the minimum but also have minimized the labour requirements (5 man- days/ha).
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