Development of smallmedium size no-till and minimum-till seeders in Asia A review

Content:The benefits of conservation a griculture (CA) , have been widely recogni z ed and CA has been widely adopted in many parts of the world . However, there are some factors that limit the widespread adoption of CA in Asia. The most prominent factor appears to be the lack of suitable CA seed ers for small to medium sized land - hold ing (SLH) farmers. This paper summarizes the small to medium no - till and minimum - till seeders currently available in Asia, and classifies these seeders into four types: manually operated units, animal traction seeder s, two - wheel tractor and four - wheel tractor driven seeders. Detail ed characteristics have been provided for s ome typical CA seeders and comparisons were made as to their s uitab ility under particular working condition s. Typically manual and animal tractio n seeders are confined to small farms and hilly areas , while the l arger CA seeders suited to four - wheel tractors are used on larger acreages . To ensure seeding performance on most four - wheel tractor CA seeders , two types of anti - blocking mechanisms (passi ve and active anti - blocking) have been fitted . Finally, t he paper proposes a future direction and development of CA seeders for small/medium size farms in As ia , and also suggests changes in p olicy support, improvement of anti - blocking mechanism s , suit abil ity for various crop s, geographical zones and the contribution of development by public private partnerships to advance the adoption of CA seeders