PurposePaddy seedling raising is a time-consuming, laborious, and high-energy input operation in nurseries with a systematic approach, repetitive motion, and a well-suited structured environment. The semi-automatic paddy seedling preparation units are cumbersome due to the limitations on manual feeding of feed material for desired quantity, watering, discharging, and tray stacking with respect to work duration and skill of the worker. Automation in paddy seedling preparation has allowed the farmers for saving in labor, energy input, and time required for raising seedlings and also monitoring all the variables in uniform distribution of feeding material, viz., soil organic mixture, paddy seeds, watering, tray discharging, tray stacking, and growth environment under paddy nurseries.MethodsMat-type paddy seedling preparation using recent IoT or embedded electronic system-based technologies have been extensively surveyed for working on automatic tray discharging, tray stacking, and feed mechanisms to set up the desired quantity of material in paddy nurseries. Apart from this, we have reviewed different existing practices for paddy seedling preparation.ResultsThe automated systems have helped ease the paddy seedling preparation operation, efficient vigor, and healthy seedlings growth by preserving the precision, accuracy, and effectiveness in raising paddy seedlings with minimal human interference.ConclusionsThis review highlights the research gaps and development in smart paddy seedling preparation technologies used in paddy transplanting with proper management and monitoring. The above advances will improve the efficiency of paddy seedling mat preparation to increase the quality and quantity of the product and pose an opportunity for the growth of the mat preparation market in the near future in paddy cultivation.
