In 1636, Greece manufactured the first planter. In 1830, the Russians made a plow planter on an animal-powered multi-axle plow. After 1860, countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States began mass production of electric drills for animals. After the 20th century, traction and suspension grain planters and seeders using pneumatic seeding have appeared one after another. Developed precision planters in the 1950s. China began to introduce grain planters and cotton planters in the 1950s. In the 1960s, various types of suspended grain planters, centrifugal planters, universal rack planters and suction planters were successively developed, and they were also developed as rice milling machines. By the 1970s, two series of general purpose machines for planting and field farming and grain combine planters had been formed, and precision planters had been successfully developed.

The objects planted by the planter are crop seeds or pelletized coated seeds. According to the seeding method, it can be divided into three types: vacuum seeder, seeder and hole seeder. Various types of precision planters developed in the 1950s can precisely control the seeding amount, hole (planting) distance and seeding depth. The pneumatic seeding precision planter developed in the 1970s, its seeding metering device (inhalation, air pressure or blowing) uses positive or negative airflow to discharge a row of seeds at a certain interval, so as to achieve single-hole precision seeding. Compared with the traditional mechanical seeding device, it has the characteristics of high seeding accuracy and no damage to the seeds. There is also a mechanical precision seed metering device. Suspended six-row crop planter, with fertilizing device, can be used for sowing and hole seeding of crops such as soybeans, corn, sorghum, etc.