1. The paddy thresher and zero tillage drill – Experience from Pakistan
Usman Mustafa and S. G. Abbas
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE)
Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC)

2. Format Pakistan, agriculture and economy Need of the technology
Methodology
Zero tillage seed drill import, designing and manufacturing
Technical specifications of ZT drill
PT import, designing and manufacturing
Technical specifications of PT drill
The Road to Success
ZT Drill and PT Units Manufactured & Area Covered/year (Million ha)
Financial Impact of ZT & PT (Million Rs.)
Technology Development Process
Conclusion and recommendations for the Promotion of Mechanized farming in Pakistan

3. Pakistan, agriculture and economy
Principal natural resources are arable land and water.
About 25% of total land area under cultivation
Agric. accounts for about 21% of GDP and employs about 43% of the labor force.
Wheat and rice are the major crops as well as the cropping systems of Pakistan’s agriculture.

4. Need of the technology The Green Revolution - 1965 to 1985.
Boost in production did not keep pace with the population growth.
Stagnation particularly of rice-wheat productivity and environmental changes required - new resource conserving production techniques
Challenge of productivity enhancement - ensure environmental safety and conserve natural resources, time, money, and energy

5. Methodology The study is a review work
Special meetings with Director, ABEI and other engineers engaged in designing and development of ZT drill and PT. Also with social scientists at NARC/PARC.
Anthers are also engaged with these machines

6. Zero tillage seed drill import, designing and manufacturing
Land preparation for wheat in rice-wheat rotation is an energy and cost intensive, time consuming practice – delay in wheat sowing
Low yield - the concept of zero-tillage sowing method was considered
Early 1980 New Zealand Pakistani origional agri. Engineer brought ZT drill idea and machine
First prototype ZT drill was imported from Aitcheson Industries from New Zealand, during mid-1980.
Efforts by FMI/AEBI, CIMMYT – local industries” Joint Venture” –

7. Zero Tillage Drill (ZT Drill)
Technical specifications of ZT drill
Power requirement : kW (45 hp)
tractor
Field capacity: acre/hour
Operating cost: Rs.1, 350/acre
Savings: Rs. 3,700/acre

8. Pedy thresher import, designing and manufacturing
After harvest, rice threshed with manual beating, bullock/tractor treading and by manual cleaning.
With this conventional system, the rice threshing season continues for 3 to 4 months in Sindh and Balochistan provinces
Highly laborious, time consuming, deteriorates rice quality and exposed to bad weather conditions.
IRRI/PAK farm machinery project during late seventies and early eighty
A tractor PTO operated high capacity (throw-in type) rice thresher was imported from Thailand

9. Pedy Thresher (PT) TECHNOLOGY HIGHLIGHT Output Capacity: 1.5 t/h
Operating Cost : Rs. 2230/t
Savings: Rs. 3960/t
Manufacturers : 16

10. The Road to Success
ABEI, Islamabad has designed and developed ZT drill and PR to suit farming conditions
ZT manufactured and marketed >35 local manufacturers > 5,500 units available with the farmers.
ZT drill used on m.ha out of 2.0 m.ha for wheat sowing during the year 2010.
Recently the price has been decreased to Rs 25, 000, mainly due to higher production and improvement in design and material from the imported Rs 2.5 million.

11. The Road to Success
There are Rs million saving due to the introduction of his machine in the rice-wheat rotation from 2002 to
PT is popular in Sindh and Balochistan province under IRRI rice cultivation.
The net saving from one machine is Rs. 0.5 million per season. Six manufacturers are manufacturing this machine mainly in Punjab. The overall net saving to national exchequer due to the adoption of ZT drill is Rs million during

12. ZT Drill and PT Units Manufactured & Area Covered/year (Million ha)
Units Manufactured/year
Area Covered/year (Million ha)
Zero-tillage Drill
Paddy Thresher
2012
1500
2000
0.325
0.286
2011
1800
2200
0.3
2010
2500
0.26
2009
3500
2800
0.275
0.208
2008
3400
1700
0.25
0.13

13. Financial Impact of ZT & PT (M. Rs.)
Years
Zero-Till Drill
Paddy Thresher
1995
6.88
1996
7.55
1997
16.00
1998
93.71
1999
149.94
2000
196.60
2001
240.60
2002
287.01
3.60
2003
315.34
36.00
2004
512.01
180.00
2005
576.00
2006
912.00
2007
1222.3
2008
2009
1964.7
2010
4,492.6
4047.5
Total
16,810.9
10,189.2

14. Technology Development Process
FMI (ABEI)
Design/Febri., Testing (lab/field)
Demonstration (Exp. Station & Farmer Field)
NARS/PARS
IARS
NARS - SSI
PARS
Farmers
Private Manu.
Agreement
Prototype
Drawing
Fabrication
M&E (SSI)
Feed Back
Adoption Impact
Demonstration
Farmers
Extension/PARS/Projects

15. Conclusion and Recommendations
Development is a continue process and need close collaboration and cooperation (International, national, local and also among all stake holders).
Farm mechanization is an important sub-sector for the national economy. Farm mechanization involves introduction of suitable farm machines and their availability either through import or local manufacturing.
AEBI of NARC ,PARC played a pivotal role in development and dissemination of local demanded machines

16. Recommendations for the promotion of farm machines
The existing capabilities of public sector Research and Development (R&D) institutions be strengthened
A national network for agricultural mechanization needs to be established to coordinate farm machinery R&D activities for efficient utilization of available resources along with new proposals to meet the farmers needs
The scope of R&D be extended to farm level processing for value addition to agricultural produce

17. Recommendations for the promotion of farm machines
Print and electronic media be used for promotion of farm mechanization technologies.
Private sector be in particular encouraged to contribute towards mechanization of agriculture sector and:
- initiate in-house R&D activities
- improve quality and standard of their products
- improve their manufacturing set-ups to meet the local demand at competitive price
- establish customer hire services for costly agricultural machinery.

18. Thank you very much