Cotton plays a major role in Indian economy and Cotton planting is conventionally done by manual dibbling which involves extensive labours compared to other operations, this result in higher cost of cultivation and delay in planting during planting season where available soil moisture is crucial in the northern Karnataka region. The crop, machine and operational parameters were identified and selected and the tractor operated ridge planter was developed and evaluated for its performance in actual field conditions. The forward speed of operation was optimized as 1.25 m/s, considering seed rate and seed spacing. The average draft and fuel consumption of the planter was 2300 N and 3.83 l/hr, respectively. The field capacity of the planter was 0.89 ha/hr with field efficiency of 73.55 per cent. The cost of operation of ridge planter for sowing cotton was found to be 433 Rs/ha compared to 1013 Rs/ha for conventional method.