Here comes the BPRE Pneumatic corn planter

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

FARMERS  UNANIMOUSLY  SAY that the most difficult operation in corn production is the planting of the seeds.  With the traditional method of planting, at least eight persons are needed to plant a hectare in one day.  A planter drops two seeds or more to a hill at variable distances as he walks the whole length of the field to and pro.

     Imagine the distance a planter traverses in a day as he sows the corn seeds.  By the end of the day, he is already tired and exhausted.  On top of this, women and children are not spared from the planting operation, especially in areas where there is a shortage of hired farm hands or when the farmer does not have enough cash to hire so many planters.

     Manual planting causes uneven seed spacing and depth as well as uneven fertilizer application.  The inherent inefficiencies in the system result in high production cost.

     One solution could be the use of mechanical planters.  However, BPRE [Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension] chief science research specialist Ofero A. Caparino said that while mechanized planting offers a lot of potential advantages compared to manual planting, existing corn planters being used in the country are imported and costly.

     True enough, imported corn planters have greater precision in the placement of seeds and fertilizer, more uniform distribution of seeds, and greater control in the seeding rate than manual planting.  However, these machines are expensive and sometimes need modification to suit local conditions.

     For one thing, imported corn planters using a mechanical seed metering system do not work well under local conditions because hybrid seeds in the Philippines are not graded according to size, Caparino said. Thus, the number of seeds dropped by the machine per hill is not consistent.

 Although imported pneumatic corn planters can be used for any size of corn seeds, a brand new 2-row model costs P600,000 while a 4-row model costs  P900,000. Imported mechanical planters are relatively cheaper but their use is limited to graded corn seeds.

     Caparino said imported corn planters are usually big and inappropriate to the sizes of Philippine farms.  As early as in 1986, it was already reported that more than 50 percent of the corn farms nationwide are less than two hectares.  In 2005 Dr. Saturnina C. Halos claimed that the average size of individual farms in the Philippines was 1.5 hectares. In the Ilocos Region, however, the average size is way below one hectare.

     One solution would be the consolidation of small and fragmented farms into one large farm so that the big imported machines could be used.

     Instead of doing that, however, Dr. Renita SM dela Cruz of the BPRE Technology Systems Development and Adaptation Division recommended the development of smaller machines that would be appropriate for small farm sizes. 

     For instance, she said the planter-fertilizer applicator that was designed for bigger sized four-wheel tractors should be re-designed for smaller tractors. Aside from lower investment, its smaller size would redound to greater flexibility in Philippine farms.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/harvest-time/)

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