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Rice (Oryza sativa L.) continues to be the staple food of Kerala, yet the area under cultivation has declined considerably in recent decades due to crop diversification, labour scarcity, and escalating wage rates. Manual transplanting, which is predominantly performed by women labourers in the state, is labour-intensive (≈250 man-hours/ha), costly, and often results in poor planting geometry leading to reduced productivity and higher weed incidence. Mechanization offers a practical alternative. To assess its feasibility, ICAR-KVK, Mitraniketan conducted Front Line Demonstrations during kharif season of 2014 and 2017 at Amaravila and Vembayam padashekharams using two designs of self-propelled rice transplanters: an 8-row riding type (Chinese) and a 6-row walk-behind type (Japanese).

Field performance indicated that mechanized transplanting required only three labourers compared to forty in manual planting, with field efficiency of 1 ha/day against 0.2 ha/day. The average cost of cultivation reduced by 29.65% to Rs. 58,316/ha compared to manual transplanting where it was Rs. 72,584/ha. Economic analysis revealed higher net returns of Rs. 71,684/ha and benefit-cost ratio 2.24 in mechanized transplanting compared to returns and BC ratio of Rs. 34,083/ha and 1.46 using manual methods. Agronomic observations also showed improvements in plant establishment: higher tiller number (26 vs. 22), grains per tiller (63 vs. 52), and yield (65 q/ha vs. 53.33 q/ha). Farmers reported reduced drudgery, timely planting, uniform spacing, and faster crop recovery as major advantages.

The study demonstrates that mechanized transplanting significantly reduces labour and cost requirements while enhancing yield and profitability. Adoption of such technologies through custom hiring centres and farmer collectives could play a key role in sustaining and revitalizing paddy cultivation in Kerala.