International Journal of Agricultural Engineering

Atul R. Dange ¹, Birbal Sahu ¹, Devchand Salam ¹, Amit Mohanty ¹

Affiliations
1 Krishi Vigyan Kendra (I.G.K.V.), Kanker C.G., IN

Abstract

Use of appropriate machinery is one of the major factors for reducing labour requirements and production costs of second crop cultivation after rice. A feasibility study was undertaken on reducing the cost of cultivation and ease of operation in paddy and wheat through mechanizing harvesting operations at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kanker, and also in the farmer's field during two seasons (Kharif and Rabi) in year 2012-13. A self propelled vertical conveyor power reaper was used for harvesting paddy and wheat in Kharif and Rabi season in year 2012-13, respectively. The overall performance of the vertical conveyor reaper was quite satisfactory. The actual field capacity for paddy harvesting was 0.276 ha/hr whereas for wheat it was found 0.311 ha/hr with fuel consumption 6.12 l/ha and 5.29 l/ha, respectively. Cost of mechanical harvesting with reaper was found 47.11% less for paddy and 44.4% for wheat as compared to the manual harvesting. The cost of cultivation of paddy and wheat crop could be reduced through mechanization of harvesting operations.

Keywords

Self-propelled Vertical Conveyor Reaper, Mechanization, Field Capacity, Field Efficiency, Harvesting

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Atul R. Dange ¹, Birbal Sahu ¹, R. K. Naik ¹, Devchand Salam ¹

Affiliations
1 Krishi Vigyan Kendra (IGKVV), Kanker (C.G.), IN

Abstract

Paddy is the principal crop and the central plains of Chhattisgarh are known as rice bowl of central India. It is a labour intensive crop and requires about 800 to 900 labour-hours for cultivating one hectare of land. Of different field operations, seeding through seed drills, transplanting, weeding through mechanical weeder and harvesting together consume major labour force and if these are managed timely and efficiently by the farmers, could earns good profit. An experiment was conducted at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kanker to assess the performance of machines used in cultivation of rice. Different machines were evaluated for particular operations. For mechanical transplanting a self propelled rice planter and paddy seeding under wet conditions an eight row paddy drum seeder were used. For weeding manually operated weeder and self propelled paddy reaper for harvesting of paddy were also evaluated. An eight row self propelled paddy transplanter was found to be very effective for timely transplanting in a large area. Its average field capacity was 0.192 ha/hr and cost of transplanting almost 61 per cent less compared to manual transplanting. Use of manually operated 8 row drum seeder tested was most effective for line sowing of sprouted paddy in puddled condition. It reduces the cost of cultivation by saving 58 per cent seed compared to farmers practice. On the other hand, weed efficiency was found maximum 83.87 per cent with Ambika paddy weeder. It was observed that the average cost of mechanical transplanting with an eight row self propelled rice transplanter 74.71 %, mechanical weeding with ambica paddy weeder was 51.15 per cent and mechanical harvesting with a self propelled vertical conveyer reaper was 59.76 per cent less as compared to manual transplanting, weeding and harvesting operations, respectively.

Keywords

Mechanization, Transplanter, Drum Seeder, Productivity.

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