Informatics Publishing Limited

Rahul Gajanan Kadam ¹, K. G. Dhande ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, RATNAGIRI (M.S.), IN

Abstract

Large number of farmers thresh paddy crop manually or by trampling it under feet of animals. Now-a- day's number of progressive farmers are using pedal operated or hold on type threshers which does not have cleaning facility. For cleaning traditional methods such as natural draft of air or small fans are used but it involves drudgery, hence, performance of power operated paddy winnower was evaluated at three different feed rates which was 112, 127 and 138 kg/hr which was developed at CAET Dapoli. The highest cleaning efficiency of 99.3 per cent was found at feed rate of 127 kg/hr for main outlet. The highest output capacity of 117.02 kg/hr was found at feed rate of 138 kg/hr. The percentages of blown grain were 0.21, 0.22 and 0.27 for respective feed rates. The corrected output capacity was 94.64, 109.49 and 114.6 kg/hr for main outlet. The power consumption was in the range of 0.194-0.200 kWh. The cost of operation of power operated paddy winnower was Rs. 30.81/ hr.

Keywords

Power Operated Paddy Winnower, Cleaning Efficiency, Output Capacity, Energy Consumption, Cost of Operation.

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G. B. Bhanage ¹, P. U. Shahare ¹, V. V. Aware ¹, K. G. Dhande ¹, P. S. Deshmukh ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Ratnagiri (M.S.), IN

Abstract

Stripping is a very popular harvesting concept that continues to challenge designers. The principle of stripping, i.e. removing the seeds from the plant without harvesting the straw. The header loss of the stripping mechanism was greatly influenced by parameters such as crop height, peripheral speed of stripping rotor, forward speed of the machine. Test rig was developed for optimizing these parameters in the laboratory. Test rig consisted of stationary stripping mechanism and movable platform which moves in forward and reverse direction. Stationary stripping mechanism consisted of stripping rotor, stripping elements and adjustable hood. Stripping elements were made of natural rubber having two shapes as slender arrow head and spaced slender arrow head. Movable platform consisted of track, height adjustable platform and crop holders. Track (9×0.7 m) was made of M.S. angle and adjustable platform (4×0.65) m made of plywood. Crop holder (spacing 25×15 cm) with spring arrangement was used for holding crop on the platform. Separate electric motors were provided for power transmission. The experiment was designed with three peripheral speed (14, 17, 20 m/s) of stripping rotor, two forward speeds (1.65 and 2.25 km/h) of the platform and three replications. Stripping rotor height 490 mm from platform and hood height 100 mm from the center of the stripping rotor were kept constant to simulate field crop condition. Testing was done in Rabi season (2015) with paddy variety Ratnagiri-1. The result of trial shows that 2.25 km/h forward speed and 20 m/s peripheral speed of stripping rotor, minimum grain loss was found as 5.56 per cent along with maximum stripping efficiency of 98.12 per cent. The slender arrow head stripping element had better performance with minimum grain loss than that of spaced slender arrow head.

Keywords

Stripping, Stripping Header, Paddy, Harvesting, Test Rig.

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N. A. Shirsat ¹, S. S. Chavan ¹, V. V. Aware ¹, P. U. Shahare ¹, K. G. Dhande ¹, Seema V. Aware ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Ratnagiri (M.S.), IN
2 Department of Physics and Electronics, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Ratnagiri (M.S.), IN

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most leading food crops in the world within the worldwide-cultivated cereals, and is second only to wheat in terms of annual food consumption. Rice is major crop of Konkan region of Maharashtra. Weeds are the major problem in rice crop. Weeding operation in rice field is very tedious and drudgeries and time consuming operation as it done manually. Hence, to reduce the drudgery and force requirement, it is necessary to develop women friendly cono weeder as per the feedback received from women workers with ergonomic consideration. The actual field capacity for cono weeder (DBSKKV) and cono weeder 1 (Double handled), cono weeder 2 (Single handled) were found to be 0.0094 ha/h, 0.0110 ha/h and 0.0133 ha/h. The field efficiency for cono weeder (DBSKKV) and cono weeder 1 (Double handled), cono weeder 2 (Single handled) were found to be 56.98 per cent, 64.77 per cent and 79.35 per cent, respectively. The weeding efficiency of cono weeder (DBSKKV) and cono weeder 1 (Double handled), cono weeder 2 (Single handled) were found to be 74.01 per cent, 79.82 per cent and 84.58 per cent, respectively. The cost of cono weeder (DBSKKV) and developed cono weeder 1 (Double handled), cono weeder 2 (Single handled) were Rs. 1150/-, Rs.800/- and Rs.785/-, respectively. The operating cost of cono weeder (DBSKKV) and developed cono weeder 1 (Double handled) and cono weeder 2 (Single handled) were Rs. 24.74/-h, Rs. 24.06/-h, Rs. 24.04/-h, respectively.

Keywords

Cono Weeder, Paddy, Hand Tool.

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Sachin Vilas Wandkar ¹, Yogesh Chandra Bhatt ¹, H. K. Jain ², K. G. Dhande ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of Technology and Engineering, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur (Rajasthan), IN
2 Department of Agricultural Statistics and Computer Application, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur (Rajasthan), IN
3 Department of Farm Machinery and Power, College of Agricultural Engineering, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli (M.S.), IN

Abstract

Application of pesticide inside orchards with conventional sprayers often results in an inefficient application as these are constant rate applicators and also the significant amount of pesticide gets lost in spaces between trees. To reduce the pesticide losses inside orchards, a variable rate sprayer was developed which sprayed only after the occurrence of the tree and according to the size of the tree. The performance of the developed variable rate sprayer was evaluated inside guava trees to quantify the spray deposition at six different plant positions. The sprayer was operated at three forward speeds (2, 3 and 4 km/h) with four air velocity levels (20, 25, 30 and 35 m/s) and two different types of nozzles (hollow cone and flat fan nozzle). The observed data was statistically analyzed to study the significance of selected parameters on spray deposition. The spray deposition was found to significantly increase with the increase in air velocity and hollow cone nozzle was able to deposit more amount of spray as compared to flat fan nozzle. There was no significant variation was observed with different forward speeds. The maximum spray was deposited on upper leaf surface at all selected plant position. The uniform spray deposition was observed with the air velocity of 35 m/s and hollow cone nozzle. Even though the developed variable rate sprayer varied the discharge of nozzles according to tree size, it was able to deposit the adequate amount of spray at all selected plant positions.

Keywords

Ultrasonic Sensor, Variable Rate Sprayer, Precision Farming, Orchard Sprayer.

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C. R. Kavitkar ¹, V. V. Aware ¹, M. R. Patil ¹, P. U. Shahare ¹, K. G. Dhande ¹, N. A. Shirsat ¹, S. V. Aware ¹

Affiliations
1 College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. B.S.Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Ratnagiri (M.S.), IN

Abstract

This field experiment was conducted at Agronomy field, DBSKKV, Dapoli. Three different ages of nursery as 21, 28 and 35 DAS were taken for study. Plant and field parameters were measured during operation with manual paddy transplanter (hand cranked). The 21 (DAS) nursery required less time (25 min) for upischolar_maining and preparing ischolar_main washed seedlings from area of 1 m² as compared to that of for 28 (DAS) (35 min) and 35 (DAS) (42 min) nursery. Missing of hills were also less in 21 (DAS) nursery. The field capacity with existing manual paddy transplanter (hand cranking) was 0.020 ha/h for 21 (DAS) nursery, whereas, for 28 and 35(DAS) nursery it was found 0.018 ha/h and 0.019 ha/h, respectively. Hence, 21 (DAS) nursery was found suitable for manual paddy transplanter (hand cranking).

Keywords

Paddy Transplanter, Hand Cranking, Missing Hills, Field Capacity.

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S. G. Yamagar ¹, K. G. Dhande ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power, College of Agriculture Engineering and Technology, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli (M.S.), IN

Abstract

Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.) is an important tree spice which produces two different spices namely nutmeg and mace. The Konkan region is well regarded as fruit belt of Maharashtra. Presently, the method adopted for harvesting nutmeg in Konkan region is by manual means i.e. by hand picking, by shaking the tree branches or by using bamboo stick having a curved hook. It was, therefore, necessary to develop harvesting system with simple design, easy for operation, low cost but with higher working efficiency. In view of the present investigation was carried out at Department of Farm Machinery and Power, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, DBSKKV, Dapoli. The developed nutmeg harvesting system consists of fruit harvester, telescopic pole, harvesting platform and fruit collecting basket. The performance of developed nutmeg harvesting system was evaluated in field and it’s harvesting capacity and damage fruit per cent was found to be 8.15 kg/h and 1.33 per cent, respectively and only one person was required for harvesting operation. The harvesting capacity and fruit damage per cent was found to be 4.37 kg/h and 10.92 per cent for hook method also 1.74 kg/h and 14.85 per cent for beating of fruits by bamboo stick method, respectively and two person were required for harvesting operation in traditional method. The cost of harvesting nutmeg with developed manual nutmeg harvesting system, hook method and beating of fruits by bamboo stick was found to be Rs./kg 5.93, 17.16 and 43.10, respectively. The developed nutmeg harvesting system proved to be superior, efficient and economical over traditional harvesting method.

Keywords

Nutmeg, Harvesting Methods, Performance Evaluation, Cost Economics.

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