In order to realize the real-time monitoring of the operation process of vegetable small seed electric seeder and improve the intelligent level of the small seed seeder, a small-grain seed electric seeder with detection function was designed by using photoelectric sensor with surface detection characteristics and visual sensor with image acquisition effect, which can complete the functions of seeding, missing seeding monitoring and seeding display, at the same time, monitoring the seeding situation and collection. The measured data can be stored and managed effectively, and the operation of the electric seeder can be analyzed later. The results showed that the accuracy rate of seeding quality monitoring system was more than 96%, the accuracy rate was over 92.3%. In the test of the image sensor, the monitoring accuracy was more than 95% when the seeding velocity was 3.0km/h and 4.5km/h, respectively. Visual Basic 6.0 software was used to equip the operation interface for the monitoring system. In the process of operation, the monitoring system can be controlled in real time, and the counting of seeding, missing seeding and real-time image of seeding can be displayed on the display screen. The research solved the problem that manual was difficult to monitor the sowing quality in real-time, and improved the sowing quality and work efficiency of the seeder.