Karnataka J. Agric. Sci.

, 22(1 ) : (140-142) 2009

Field performance evaluation of vertical conveyor paddy reaper

M. V. MANJUNATHA, B. G. MASTHANA REDDY , S. D. SHASHIDHAR AND V. R. JOSHI Department of Agricultural Engineering University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad -580 005, India E-mail: mvmuasd@rediffmail.com (Received : May, 2008)
Abstract :A feasibility study was undertaken on reducing the cost of cultivation in paddy through mechanizing harvesting operations at Agricultural Research Station, Gangavathi during kharif, 2002 to rabi/summer, 2004-05 and also in the farmer's field. A vertical conveyor power reaper (KAMCO Model KR 120) was used for the purpose. The overall performance of the vertical conveyor reaper was quite satisfactory. The actual field capacity of the power reaper was 0.3 ha/hr with a field efficiency of 73 % at an average operating speed of 3.2 kmph. The fuel consumption was 5.5 l/ha. The cost of cultivation of paddy crop could be reduced through mechanization of harvesting operations. Cost of mechanical harvesting was Rs.420/ha as compared Rs 800/ha in the case of manual harvesting provided the machines are used for their maximum usage of 144 hectares in a year. As the usage of the machine in terms of number of hectare per year decreases, the cost of operation increases. To breakeven with the cost of manual operation, the power reaper should be used at least on 35 hectares per year. Hence, the mechanical harvesting would be economical provided they are used on an area of 35 hectare per year and above only. Key words: Paddy mechanization, vertical conveyor reaper, field capacity, field efficiency, economic feasibility

Introduction Rice is one of the most important crop and staple food of millions of people which is grown in many countries of the world. The total area planted under rice crop in India is 42.20 million hectares, which is the largest in the world as against total area of 148.40 million hectares (Ved Prakash Chaudhary and Varshney, 2003). The total rice production of the world was 527 million tones, out of which 84.74 million tonnes was produced in India (Survey of Indian Agriculture, 2000).In spite of the fact that the production of rice is increasing as a result of improved methods of farming, the harvesting techniques employed are still primitive. Rice harvesting by manual method require about 25 % of the total labour requirement of the crop. Depending upon the crop yield, 120 to 250 man-hr is required for cutting, bundling and on-field stacking of one hectare of rice field by using traditional sickle (Nadeem, 1983). Due to rapid industrialization and large scale migration to urban areas labour is becoming increasingly scarce and also proving costly. This labour shortage during harvesting resulted in delayed harvest and consequent field grain losses. Mechanization of harvesting is an alternative solution. Farm mechanization will also result in lesser cost of operation. Where farmers have adopted combines for harvesting, alternative straw handling and disposal technology may have to be developed and promoted, as burning of straw is creating environmental pollution and farmers are losing valuable animal feed material. Reaper harvesters on the other hand are other alternative harvesting equipment, provided straw is considered as economic by-product for animal feed and/or industrial applications (Gyanendra singh, 2002). Keeping these in view, a feasibility study was undertaken to reduce the

cost of harvesting in paddy crop through mechanization of harvesting. Material and methods Field demonstrations were conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Gangavati, (15 15'40" N and 7631'45" E, 419 m above mean sea level) Karnataka state during kharif, 2002, 2003, 2004 and rabi/summer, 2004-05 to study the economic feasibility of paddy harvesting through vertical conveyor reaper. The demonstrations were also carried out in the farmer's field during rabi/summer, 2004-05. Experimental details in respect of crop variety, area covered, date of paddy transplanting and harvesting, etc. are presented in Table 1. Kerala Agro Machinery Corporation Ltd (KAMCO) make 3.5 HP single cylinder 4 stroke, air cooled, petrol start, kerosene run engine (Model: KR 120) was used for paddy harvesting. It has a fixed cutting width of 120 cm with an adjustable cutting height of 10 - 30 cm from ground level. The crop was left aside after cutting at the right side of the machine. The detailed technical specification of the paddy reaper is shown in Table 2. Observations on speed of operation, width of operation, total time taken to cover the area and the fuel consumption were recorded. Using the above observations, the following parameters were computed for power reaper. 1. 2. Theoretical field capacity was calculated based on the forwarded speed and the width of the equipment. Actual field capacity was calculated based on area covered, and actual time taken for covering the area including the time lost in turning.

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Karnataka J. Agric. Sci., 22(1) : 2009 3. 4. 5. Field efficiency was obtained by dividing actual field capacity by the theoretical field capacity Labour saving by using the machines compared to manual operations was also observed. Cost of mechanical harvesting per hectare was worked out after taking into consideration the fixed cost, labour cost, fuel cost, field capacity of the equipment and usage of the equipment in hectares per year and was compared with the manual operations. different areas of usage during a year, as the cost per hectare varies with the number of hectares of usage of the machine in a year. Variation in cost/ha with number of hectares of usage per year is shown in figure 1. The variation in cost/ha in terms of number of hectares of usage per year taking into consideration of two harvesting seasons in a year and 30 days of harvesting period per season and 8 working hours per day, the maximum area on which the reaper can be operated in a year is 144 hectares considering the actual field capacity as 0.3 ha/hr. The cost of manual harvesting, collecting and bundling was Rs. 800/ha as against Rs 420/ha in the case of mechanical harvesting. Taking this into consideration, the cost of mechanical harvesting would break even at 35 hectares of usage per year, which means considering two seasons in a year it will be economical to own the power reaper provided a person owns at least 17.5 hectares of paddy land. If the usage of the machine is less than 35 hectares in a year the cost of operation would be more than manual operation. From the study, it can be concluded that the vertical conveyor power reaper could be used successfully with a labour saving of about 10 man days per hectare and eliminating the drudgery on the part of labourers. Keeping the field capacity of the power reaper at 0.30 ha/hr, an area of 2.4 ha could be harvested in a day. The maximum area that could be covered by the power reaper in a year is 144 hectares as the harvesting operations are seasonal. If the machines are used for the maximum usage of 144 hectares in a year, the cost of mechanical harvesting would be Rs.420/ha as compared to Rs. 800/ha in the case of manual harvesting. As the usage of machine in terms of number of hectares per year decreases, the cost of operation per hectare increases. At 35 hectares of usage per year of power reaper, the cost of operation for mechanical and manual would be same. Hence, the mechanical harvesting would be economical if they are used on an area of 35 hectare per year and above only. Thus, it is feasible to reduce the cost of harvesting operation of paddy by mechanization to almost half the cost of manual harvesting provided the machines are used for their maximum usage of 144 hectares in a year. Thus, mechanization in paddy is a feasible solution to reduce the cost of harvesting without any yield reduction.

Results and discussion Paddy crop was harvested using vertical conveyor power reaper. Based on the field demonstrations conducted during kharif 2002, 2003, 2004 and rabi/summer, 2004-05, it was observed that the actual cutting width of the reaper was 1.20 m. The actual field capacity of the power reaper was 0.3 ha/hr with a field efficiency of 73 % at an average operating speed of 3.2 kmph (Table 3). Time taken to harvest one hectares of paddy area was about 3 hr 45 minutes and the fuel consumption of power reaper was measured at 5.5 l/ha or 1.5 l/hr. The overall performance of the vertical conveyor reaper was quite satisfactory. The labour requirement in mechanical harvesting with manual collecting and building of the crop was 10 man days per hectare as compared to 20 man days per hectare in case of manual harvesting, collecting and building of the crop. Thus, there was a saving of 10 man days of labour per hectare. Cost of mechanical harvesting was worked out for
1500 Cost (Rs/ha) 1250
1168

Cost (Rs/ha)

1000
800

750
734

589 473 517 420

500 250 0 20 35 40 60 Hectare/year 80

100

144

Fig.1: Cost of operation of power reaper as influenced by number of hactares of usage per year Table 1. Details of the demonstration Sl.Particulars No. 1 Rice variety 2 Study area (hectares) 3 Date of nursery raised 4 Type of nursery raised 5 Date of transplanting 6 N:P2 O5:K2O(kg/ha) 7 Date of harvest Kharif, 2002 Machine BPT-5204 0.22 31-7-2002 Mat type on plastic sheets 3-9-2002 150:75:75 1-1-2003 3-9-2002 150:75:75 1-1-2003 Manual BPT-5204 0.12 31-7-2002 Normal

Kharif, 2003 Machine IR-64 1.2 9-8-2003 Mat type on plastic sheets 9-9-2003 150:75:75 12-1-2004 10-9-2003 150:75:75 12-1-2004 Manual IR-64 0.07 11-8-2003 Normal

Kharif, 2004 Machine IR-64 2.4 29-7-2004 Mat type on plastic sheets 26-8-2004 150:75:75 14-12-2004 28-8-2004 150:75:75 14-12-2004 Manual IR-64 0.10 30-7-2004 Normal

Rabi/Summer, 2004-05 Machine 4.0 5-12-2004 Normal 11-1-2005 150:75:75 3-5-2005 Manual 0.1 5-12-2004 Normal 11-1-2005 150:75:75 3-5-2005 MTU - 1010 MTU -1010

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Field performance . . . . . . . ..
Table 2. Technical specification of vertical conveyor power reaper Sl.No. Parameters Specifications 1 Manufacturer Kerala Agro Machinery Corporation Ltd., (A Govt. of Kerala undertaking), Athani683 585, Ernakulam Dist. 2 Model KR 120 3 Dimension, LxWxH (cm) 239 x 147 x 90 4 Weight (kg) 116 5 Power unit 3.5 HP single cylinder 4 stroke, air cooled, petrol start, kerosene run engine 6 Working capacity (ha/hr) 0.25 to 0.30 7 Crop release Right side of the machine(Viewed fromrear) 8 Travel speed (km/hr) Forward 3.5 Backward 3.0 9 Applicability Dry and wet field 10 Cutting device Reciprocating knife bar 11 Cutting height (cm) 10-30 from ground level (adjustable) 12 Cutting width (cm) 120

Table 3. Performance of power reaper in transplanted paddy Sl. Parameters No. 1 Date of harvesting 2 Total area (ha) 3 Speed of operation (km/hr) 4 Width of operation (m) 5 Time taken to cover 1 ha area 6 Actual field capacity (ha/hr) 7 Theoretical field capacity (ha/hr) 8 Field efficiency (%) 9 Labour requirement man days/ha (including collecting and building) 10 Fuel consumption (l/ha)

kharif 2002 1-1-2003 0.22 3.4 1.2 3 hr 20 min 0.30 0.41 73 10 5.5

kharif 2003 12-1-2004 1.2 3.1 1.2 3 hr 45 min 0.27 0.41 66 10 5.75

kharif 2004 14-12-2004 2.4 3.2 1.2 3 hr 45 min 0.27 0.41 66 10 5.75

rabi/summer, 2004-05 3-5-2005 4.0 3.1 1.2 4 hr 10 min 0.24 0.41 59 11 6.25

References Anonymous, 2000, Survey of Indian Agriculture, Hindu publication. Gyanendra Singh, 2002, Equipment to ensure timeliness. The Hindu Survey of Indian agriculture, 195-198. Nadeem Amjad, 1983, Field performance evaluation of rice reaper. In: Agricultural mechanization in Asia, Africa and Latin America, 14 : 35-40 Ved Prakash Chaudhary and Varshney, B.P., 2003, Influence of seedling mat characteristics and machine parameters on performance of self-propelled rice transplanter. In : Agricultural mechanization in Asia, Africa and Latin America, 34: 13-38.

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