الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
An automatic potato planter has been fabricated by utilizing locally materials. The developed planter is a fully automatic 2 rowplanter. It is capable for establishing different ridge shapes and for planting both cut and whole tuber seeds. The mechanical and work rate performances of that planter were inspected. whereas draught requirements, operating stability, and field efficiency are studied for different operating speeds, depths, and ridge deformation shapes. In addition, the seed deposition function was tested using two tuber seed shapes (cut and whole), two metering cell shapes (cup, and spoon), four speed levels of the metering belt (0.5,0.6,0.7,and0.8m/sec) and three levels of seed DROPping heights (10,20,and30cm). The results showed that: ??The minimum draught requirements (5.5KN/row), the reliable operating stability factor (K=2), and the maximum field efficiency (81 %) coincided with the following operating conditions: the doublerow flat ridge method at an operating speed of 3.5km/h and ridge deformation depth of 12cm. ??The highest seed spacing uniformity, the lowest seed void / double ratio, the highest tuber yield and the maximum percent of desired shape quality (oval shape tubers) are obtained at the following operating conditions, use of cut instead of whole tuber seeds, replacing cup instead of spoon tuber cells and controlling the DROPping height at 10cm,and the metering belt speed at 0.6 m/sec ??The less soil sweeping from both ridge sides is accomplished when planting of cut tuber seed using the double row flat ridge method. ??The net economic revenue using the developed planter represents about 130% of the traditional planting method (manual)