DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF TRACTOR-MOUNTED FERTILISZRS SPREADER

The lack of efficiency and effectiveness in fertilizer applications in many crops has been continues challenge to sustainable use of inorganic/commercial fertilizers, the right balance in fertilizer application is an important element in nutrition management in Egypt, and promoting efficient and effective use of fertilizer has emerged as an important target of policies and programs in recent decades.  However, fertilizers distribution in Egypt is still mostly done manually due to small field sizes, and it is laborious, costly, and the spread pattern is not accurate. So manufacturing such small fertilizer distributor that can be mounted on a tractor or any smaller carriage could provide a simple mechanized solution for fertilizing small fields in Egypt. So, this study is carried out to manufacture and test a tractor-mounted spreader and this could help farmers to increase efficiency and effectiveness in fertilizer use in small scale applications. Fertilizers spreader consisted of; frame, spreading material hopper, agitator, spreading disc with four adjustable blades (fins), and electrical control unit. In stationery mode experiments, Differences of distribution density in both sides of the spreader have been measured under different possible combinations of settings till best results obtained. Many tables have generated to get the recommended setting to deliver specific amount with best uniformity. Also, the spreader has been calibrated to get the repression equations to be the base of using different fertilizers in field based on the recommended tractor forward speeds in field. For spreading Urea in field, placing 1 fin in middle and 3 fins at end right on spreading disc and setting spreading disc speed to 550 rpm is better option to have 5.5 m effective swath length. Where using 250 rpm spreading disc speed is one of settings can achieve the favorable effective swath width of 5.5 m with compound fertilizer. For maximum spreading width, it is recommended to set the spreading disc speed to 700 rpm and 2 disc fins located in center and 2 in their end right for both urea and compound fertilizer. Muriate of Potash fertilizer (MOP) as a fine crystal fertilizer with recommended amount less than 20 kg/feddan in most of fields not easy to be distributed by the spreader under 4 km/h forward speed or less. Average SPAD values (Chlorophyll meter values) showed no significant differences within each subplot and in different locations for all application rates.  The maximum difference between average lowest and highest SPAD values for plots that have been spread by the machine was 8 % when the machine was spreading 75 % of recommended rate. Lowest values were 3 and 4% for 50 and 100 % of recommended rates. In manual broadcasting there was difference of 15% between lower and highest value of SPAD in different plot locations.