Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 24 ISSUE 1
Written by Tarek FOUDA, Abeer ABDELSALAM, Atef SWILAM, Mohamed El DIDAMONY

The research aimed to develop and evaluate the raised bed machine to suit faba bean planting with local materials. Metering plates were designed with different shapes index and slots shapes suitable for faba bean planting and tested at the Department of Agriculture Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Tanta University, Egypt. The raised bed machine was tested and evaluated under three different forward speeds (2, 3.5, and 4.5 km/h), and three different planting distances (D1, D2, and D3 were 15, 20, and 25 cm). The results indicated that the lowest percentage of missing hills, seed damage, germination ratio, and dispersion ratio were 1.4%,1.2%, 97.57%, and 8.5% at a forward speed of 2km/h and planting distance of 15 cm. The highest value of the actual field capacity, the lowest value of specific energy, and the lowest value of operating costs were 1.25 fed/h, 11. 66kW.h/fed, and 280 L.E./faddan (4,200 m₂), respectively for first metering plate (TPU Materials, Hole Length 19mm, Hole Width15mm, Slot Shape Ellipse and Shape Index1.76. Linear regression analysis were performed to predict the operating parameters for the raised bed machine the machine at different forward speeds during different planting distances.

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