Design and Comparative Experimental Study of Air-Suction Mulai-Arm Potato Planter

Xiaoxin Zhu, Pinyan Lyu, Qiang Gao, Haiqin Ma, Yuxuan Chen, Yu Qi, Jicheng Li and Jinqing Lyu ()
Additional contact information
Xiaoxin Zhu: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Pinyan Lyu: College of Engineering and Technology, Jilin Agricultural University, Jilin 130118, China
Qiang Gao: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Haiqin Ma: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Yuxuan Chen: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Yu Qi: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Jicheng Li: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Jinqing Lyu: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 16, 1-25

Abstract: China ranks as the world’s leading potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) producer, while the poor seeding machinery performance limited a higher input–output ratio in potato cultivation and impeded sustainable development. We developed an advanced air-suction mulai-arm potato planter (ASPP) that incorporated integrated side-deep fertilization, automated seed feeding, negative-pressure seed filling, seed transportation, positive-pressure seed delivery, soil covering, and compaction. The study proposes a Negative-pressure seed extraction mechanism that minimizes seed damage by precisely controlling suction pressure, and the near-zero-speed seed delivery mechanism synchronizes seed release with ground speed, reducing bounce-induced spacing errors. Furthermore, the structural configuration and operation principle of ASPP were systematically elucidated, and key performance parameters and optimal values were identified. We conducted a randomized complete block design plot trial comparing the spoon-belt potato planter (SBPP) and spoon-chain potato planter (SCPP), evaluating sowing quality, seedling emergence rate ( ER ), potato yield ( PY ), and comprehensive economic benefits. The results revealed that plant spacing index ( PSI ), missed-seeding index ( MI ), re-seeding index ( RI ), and coefficient of variation ( CV ) of ASPP were 90.05%, 3.78%, 2.32%, and 7.93%, respectively. The mean ER values for ASPP, SBPP, and SCPP were 94.76%, 85.42%, and 83.46%, respectively, with the ASPP showing improvements of 10.93% and 13.54% over SBPP and SCPP. However, the SBPP and SCPP exhibited greater emergence uniformity than ASPP. The mean PY value was 37,205.25, 32,973.75, and 34,620 kg·ha −1 for ASPP, SBPP, and SCPP. The ASPP outperformed the SBPP and SCPP by 12.83% and 7.47%. Overall, ASPP demonstrated balanced and superior performance across the above-mentioned indicators, demonstrating its potential to enable precision agriculture in tuber crop cultivation.

Keywords: mulai-arm seed metering system; design optimization; sowing quality; seedling emergence rate; potato yield; comprehensive economic benefits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/16/1714/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/16/1714/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:16:p:1714-:d:1720343

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().