A rice transplanter is a specialized transplanter fitted to transplant

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

seedlings A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

onto paddy fields. The two main types of rice transplanter are the riding type and walking type. The riding type is power-driven and can usually transplant six lines in one pass; the walking type is manually driven and can usually transplant four lines in one pass. Although rice is grown in areas other than

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, rice transplanters are used mainly in East, Southeast, and South Asia. This is because rice can be grown without transplanting, by simply sowing seeds on field, and farmers outside Asia prefer this fuss-free way at the expense of reduced yield.

A common rice transplanter comprises: * a seedling tray like a shed roof on which a mat-type rice nursery is set; * a seedling tray shifter that shifts the seedling tray like a

typewriter A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...

carriage; and *plural pickup forks that pick up a

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

from a mat-type nursery on the seedling tray and put the seedling into the earth, as if the seedling were taken between one's fingers. Machine transplanting using rice transplanters requires considerably less time and labour than manual transplanting. It increases the approximate area that a person can plant from 700 to 10,000 square metres per day. However, rice transplanters are considerably expensive for almost all Asian small-hold farmers. Rice transplanters are popular in industrialized countries where labor cost is high, for example in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. They are now also becoming more popular in South Asian countries because, at transplanting time, labor shortage is at peak levels. Rice transplanters were first developed in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in the 1960s, whereas the earliest attempt to mechanize rice transplanting dates back to late 19th century. In Japan, development and spread of rice transplanters progressed rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s.

References

{{Portal bar, Agriculture, Food, Technology Agricultural machinery

Further reading

References