Economics of the Greenseeder Hand Planter

Abstract

Corn (Zea mays L.) yields in developing countries are lower than in developed countries, in part due to planting methods that involve hand dropping of multiple seeds per hill. The Greenseeder hand planter (GHP) was developed to reduce seeding rates and long-term health risks from using bare hands to drop pesticide-treated seeds. When used to apply fertilizer, it can prevent loss of N from ammonia volatilization. This research determines economic break-even levels of seed and labor savings, increases in corn yield, and reduced loss of N through reduced ammonia volatilization. A GHP used to plant 3 ha yr -1 that costs US$50 would need to increase corn yields on average by about 1.12%, use 12.19% fewer seeds, or reduce labor man-days by 38.66% to equal expected net returns from traditional methods. Using the GHP to apply fertilizer would on average increase corn yields up to 10.82% ha -1 due to reduced N loss from ammonia volatilization and thus fertilization alone could be enough to pay for the planter.

Climate Change Impacts on Sustainable Maize Production in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review

“…Maize, a field crop that is one of the most cultivated crops in the world, is a staple crop for most countries in SSA [13]. While maize remains an important crop for many millions in SSA, its yields in developing countries (including SSA) are lower than in developed countries [14][15][16]. More importantly, maize production depends on water availability, and most of SSA's agriculture is rain-fed, which makes maize production an obvious candidate to be affected by weather shocks such as droughts-one of the negative consequences of climate change.…”