The field experiment was carried out in Xinshao, Hunan province, the test field area was ranged from 133 m2 to 667 m2. The changes of work efficiency in different aspects, including pure planting, turning and supplying seedling etc., were measured through field trials in the arable land of different sizes. Firstly, according to the most adaptive speed of machinist, the speed of the transplanter is keeping around 0.4 m/s. When the planting clutch of rice transplanter closed and began planting operation, record the time node, whereas the planting clutch separated and transplanter stopped, also record the time node. The results showed that the fragmention in montanic farmland mainly had a effect on the turning efficiency of walking transplanter. When the area less than 266.8 m2, the turn-around time of transplanter in unit area comes to 270 minutes per hm2, whereas the area is larger than 266.8 m2, the turn-around time is 150 minutes/hm2. When the field area is less than 266.8 m2, 266.8–533.6 m2 and more than 266.8 m2, the average efficiency of the hand-held rice transplanter were 568 m2/h, 660 m2/h, 650 m2/h, respectively. Because of the lower operation efficiency in mountain area, it should be done toimprove the planting machine turning performance, and optimize the turning operation convenience, to facilitate better adapt to the chronology of the cultivated land. Besides, we should promote the finely cultivated land intensive management to develop the rice mechanization of Southern Hilly area in China.