Performance Evaluation of Tractor Drawn Root Crop Harvester for Harvesting of Potato and Ginger Crop

Author: D.M. Kadam, Rahul Dongre, Rajesh Gupta, Rahul Gautam and S.K. Rajak

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Abstract

Potato and Ginger are important root crops grown in Madhya Pradesh and in India. Harvesting is one of the very crucial operation in potato and ginger crop production. In conventional method, the potato and ginger is harvested either by manually with spade or hand hoe or by bullock drawn equipment, which is tedious, labour intensive and time consuming operation. Also, the damage percentage of potato and ginger is sometimes more due to cutting action of spade or hoe or blade of bullock drawn equipment, which reduces market value and storage life of these root crops. Many researchers and local manufacturers have tried to develop the tractor drawn root crop harvester to overcome these problems with conventional method, but these machines are need to be evaluated in the field as per BIS standard, for further refinement in the design of machine, for standardization, for improving its performance and for checking its feasibility and suitability in different agro climatic conditions. Hence, the research work was undertaken to evaluate the performance of tractor drawn root crop harvester for potato and ginger crops. In the research work undertaken, the tractor operated root crop harvester developed by PAU was tested as per BIS test code at farmer’s field and at JNKVV farm in Jabalpur. During performance evaluation of tractor drawn root crop harvester in the field, the digging efficiency of root crop harvester for potato was found 94-96 % and for ginger it was found 92-94 %. The draft requirement of root crop harvester for harvesting of potato was recorded 1060 kg and for harvesting of ginger was recorded 1180 kg. The actual field capacity of root crop harvester for harvesting of potato was recorded 0.21 ha/h and for harvesting of ginger was recorded 0.18 ha/h during field testing of machine. The field efficiency of root crop harvester for harvesting of potato was recorded 68% and for harvesting of ginger was recorded 64%. Total per cent saving in cost operation was found 85.64% for potato and 83.35% for ginger harvesting when compared with manual method. Payback period was found 0.40 year for potato and 0.25 year for ginger harvesting when used tractor drawn root crop harvester. Hence use of tractor drawn root crop harvester can save lot of time, cost of operation and labour required in harvesting of potato and ginger. The overall functional performance of various systems of tractor drawn root crop harvester was found satisfactory during laboratory and field testing.

Keywords

Root crop harvester, root crop digger, bruised, cut, exposed, digging efficiency, performance evaluation of digger

Conclusion

The overall functional performance of various systems of tractor drawn root crop harvester was found satisfactory during laboratory and field testing trials. The digging efficiency of root crop harvester for potato was found 94-96 % and for ginger it was found 92-94 %. The draft requirement of root crop harvester for harvesting of potato was recorded 1060 kg and for harvesting of ginger was recorded 1180 kg during field testing of tractor drawn root crop harvester machine. The actual field capacity of root crop harvester for harvesting of potato was recorded 0.21 ha/hand for harvesting of ginger was recorded 0.18 ha/h during field testing of machine. The field efficiency of root crop harvester for harvesting of potato was recorded 68% and for harvesting of ginger was recorded 64% during field testing of machine. Total per cent saving in cost operation was found 85.64% for potato and 83.35% for ginger harvesting when compared with manual method. Payback period was found 0.40 year for potato and 0.25 year for ginger harvesting when used tractor drawn root crop harvester. Therefore, use of tractor drawn root crop harvester can save lot of time, cost of operation and labour required in harvesting of potato and ginger. Hence, from above research work it can be concluded that the tractor drawn root crop harvester is suitable for harvesting of potato and ginger and may be suitable for other root crops like onion, sweat potato, garlic, turmeric crops with little adjustments in the existing machinery.

References

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How to cite this article

D.M. Kadam, Rahul Dongre, Rajesh Gupta, Rahul Gautam and S.K. Rajak (2023). Performance Evaluation of Tractor Drawn Root Crop Harvester for Harvesting of Potato and Ginger Crop. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(3): 564-570.