International Journal of Agricultural Engineering

Sumit Kumar ¹, Surendra Pal ¹, Suryakanta Khandai ¹, Manish Kumar ¹, Ashok Tripathi ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad (U.P.), IN

Abstract

Sugarcane planting is a very labour intensive job and involves considerable human drudgery. Planting creates the foundation for a crop and plays a crucial role in its growth and yield. Study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of two different models of sugarcane planters. One model was Khalsa PE-630 type cuter planter manufactured M/S Punjab engineers, Meerut and the other was ITI make cutter planter designed by Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, and manufactured by Indian Telephone Industries, Rai Bareli. In addition to this two different experimental test set ups based on different principals were developed for measuring cutting forces for sugarcane cutting. It was observed that field capacity of Khallsa make planter was 0.20 ha/hr with the field efficiency of 87.50% at effective working width of 1.34 m and a forward speed of 2.54 km/hr at 2^nd low gear. A set length of 32.96 cm with average.

Keywords

Sugarcane, Cutter Plauter.

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Manish Kumar ¹, Ashok Tripathi ¹, Devesh Kumar ¹, Sumit Kumar ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Vaugh Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad (U.P.), IN

Abstract

Sugarcane is a most important cash crop of India. It involves less risk and farmers are assured upto some extent about return even in adverse condition. In agriculture sector, sugarcane shared 7% of the total value of agriculture output and occupied 2.6% of India’s gross cropped area during 2006-07. Sugarcane provides raw material for the second largest agro-based industry after textile. About 527 working sugar factories were located in the country during 2010- 11 with total crushing capacity of about 242 lakh tonnes. The sugar industry is an instrumental in generating the sizable employment in the rural sector directly and through its ancillary units. It is estimated that about 50 million farmers and their dependents are engaged in the cultivation of sugarcane and about 0.5 million skilled and unskilled workers are engaged in sugar factories and its allied industries. Wheat-sugarcane-raton cropping system is followed in whole of western Uttar Pradesh and lower parts of Uttrakhand where sugarcane is the main cash crop and wheat is the major cereal. The system accounts for more than 60% of the total cultivated area in the region. However, lower average yield of planted cane (50 tonnes/ha) recorded in this. The reduction in cane yield owing to delayed planting cannot be compensated by additional inputs viz., frequent irrigations, extra fertilizers and inter culture operations. Planting of sugarcane involves a number of operations viz., cutting of canes into pieces called setts, opening of furrows, placement of fertilizer in the opened furrows, laying setts and covering these with a blanket of soil. The whole process of sugarcane planting is very labour and time intensive. In order to achieve uniform crop stand, correct seed rate, appropriate depth of setts placements and uniformity of setts with required overlapping are important. These, however can better be achieved by using tractor-drawn sugarcane cutter planter apart from economising labour and energy. Also there is a need to evolve proper tillage techniques for early planting of sugarcane in wheat-sugarcane crop sequence. In this paper study conducted on the performance of the effect of pre and post irrigation on different tillage treatments on soil’s physical properties on the different types of sugarcane cutter planters.

Keywords

Wheat Harvesting, Pre and Post Irrigation, Sugarcane Cutter Planters, Rigid, Slit, Disc and Furrower Planter.

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Sumit Kumar ¹, Ashok Tripathi ¹, Surendra Pal ¹, Prashant D’Souza ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad (U.P.), IN

Abstract

The agricultural sector is at the heart of rural India and continues to be a major contributor to the local and national economy. Those at the centre of this industry are farm families who represent 97% of the farming population. Engineering and technology have had both positive and negative consequences on humankind and the environment. Agriculture is not a safe occupation. Agricultural workers face a large number of health problems in the form of physical factors like extreme weather conditions, sunrays, etc.; chemical, toxicological hazards in the form of pesticides/fertilizers, etc. Many of which arise from their work. Clinically well recognized group of occupationally acquired health problems may be respiratory, dermatological, traumatic, poisoning and neoplastic in nature. Prevalence of some specific zoonotic diseases and behavioural health problems are also found to be more among them. Farming is as much a job as it is a way of life, an identity and a social representation for many. This identity has, however, in recent years been constantly threatened by yearly rises in farm accidents and fluctuations in farm deaths which climaxed in 2015 with more than 3000 people losing their lives and thousands of farmers injured during farming daily on Indian farms. Not only did 3000 families lose loved ones, whole communities and regions have been adversely affected by these deaths which have far ranging negative influence on the sustainability of rural areas and use of technology. Unfortunately one does not have to go far from the farm gate to find a farmer who has been severely disabled or injured as a result of a farm accident and often at times less further to the place of a farm death as farm accidents are so frequently fatal. In this paper we are going to preliminary research on the study of occupational safety issues and hazards for the agricultural workers in farming sector in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India and proposed a research model to study on the effect of innovation in farm technology on the health of the farm workers, various hazardous sector of agriculture and their effect on the farm workers.

Keywords

Farm Technology, Occupational Safety, Hazardous Sector of Agriculture.

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