DESIGN,FABRICATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A MULTIPLE-HILL MANUALLY-OPERATED CORN JABBER

This study was conducted to design, fabricate and evaluate a manually-operated corn jabber made of locally-available materials. The performance of the corn hand jabber was evaluated in terms of seeding rate, percent empty hills, percent seed damage, effective field capacity, and field efficiency. The performance evaluation was conducted using 300g of two different varieties of hybrid corn seeds,100g in each hopper. The seeding was done in a 10mx4m plot area, minimum tilled land with six rows spaced 60cm and hill spacing of 27cm. Data were analyzed using a completely randomized design. Based on the results, the BIO9909 hybrid corn seeds had a seeding rate of 40kg/ha injecting 1-3seeds per hill with 10.52% empty hills, 0% seed damages at 0.58ha/hr effective field capacity, and 79.28% field efficiency. As for the BTRR yellow corn hybrid seeds had a seeding rate of 39.3kg/ha depositing 1- 5 seeds/hill with o0% empty hills and seed damages at 0.58ha/hr effective field capacity and 78.38% field efficiency. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference between the treatments on the weight of seeds collected(during calibration), seeding rate, effective field capacity, and field efficiency. However, there is a significant difference in the number of seeds collected(during calibration and actual planting), the percentage of empty hills by a level of 5% level of significance. The seeds recommended to be used on the manually-operated corn jabber were the theBIO9909 hybrid corn seeds and the device must be made with lighter materials for the ideal weight and comfort for the operator.