PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TWO DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF RICE TRANSPLANTING UNDER EGYPTIAN CONDITIONS

Field experiments were carried out at Rice Mechanization Center, Meet EI-Oeeba. Kafer EI-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt to determine field ca­pacity, field efficiency, slip ratio, planting accuracy, transplanter efficien­cy, total yield. energy requirements and transplanting cost using : a) B­row rotary type transplanter (30 cm between rows) and 12-row crank type transplanter (20 cm between rows). They were operated at three different forward speeds using three different distances between hills within the row. The highest value of effective field capacity was 0.91 fed./h for rotary type transplanter at forward speed of about 2.80 km/h. The high­est value of total yield was (3.52 and 3.21 Mg / led) at the same speed for crank type transplanter 12-row and 8-row rotary transplanter, re­spectively. The crank type transplanter 12-row which gave the highest number of hills per square meter (33hills/m²) at forward speed of 2.80 km/h. The lowest values of missing; damaged and floating hills % were obtained at values of (1.8, 1.0 and 2.5%) with crank type transplanter 12-row. The best results of transplanter efficiency were (84.5%) ob­tained with crank type transplanter 12-row at 2.80km/h. The minimum cost was recorded as (40.0 and 67.50 L.E/fed) for crank type trans­olanter 12-row and 8- row rotary transplanter. respectively. when corn-