Strengths and Weaknesses

What Do We Need?

“It was a good experience, this is my first time to this kind of activity in

farming, and it helps me a lot in increasing my knowledge and skills.

The hand planter must be improve base from the previous

recommendation and try/test it again.”

- Mr. Ghani, of Doi Luang Chiangrai, Thailand

We know we can consistently singulate corn seed and place 1.4 g of urea subsurface near the plant.

We are a team of researchers/educators, not product developers or manufacturers.

For this effort to keep moving at an acceptable pace, it REQUIRES a commitment from intermediaries to gather and provide appropriate feedback to this team.

More Testing – Customer Feedback

“The experience was very rich, the only things that need to be improved is the hand planter

tip. Two hand planter tip is recommended by Mr. Somchat, one for tilled and one for

unplowed ground. I am excited to do my own research if I have chance just a

comparative between using local planter Vs. Hand planter in both tilled area.”

- Mr. Somchat Chuwet, of Doi Luang Chiangrai, Thailand

We have made improvements in tip design since these comments were made. Some of these improvements were a direct product of cooperation with Joshua Ringer and his team.

In the US, we have ‘trained’ farmers not to plant into wet soil. However, this continues to be an issue in developing countries. Moist soil sticks to almost everything.

Soil Engaging

“I am happy to work together with the OSU research representative; I

learn a lot from the experience was that planting using hand

planter is faster than just using local wood as hand planter. It

opens my mind about other materials to be use in upland farming. I hope

that there is another phase 2 of the research.”

- Mr. Kya Eh, of Doi Luang Chiangrai, Thailand

We believe this planter definitely reduces labor and has other potential ergonomic benefits (like not bending over while planting).

We would like to quantify some of these benefits starting with a time-motion study.

Labor Savings

Compare the OSU hand planter to traditional planting methods

Plant 20 seeds (strikes) with each methods while being timed.

Replicate 4 times for multiple operators.

Conduct stand counts after complete emergence.

We can calculate ha/hr and planting efficacy

Seeding Rate Time Trial Protocol