Evaluation of Walking Behind Harvester for Wheat Crop

Ashebir Tsegaye

doi:10.7176/isde/12-2-01

Abstract

The walking behind harvester (TNS Model 4S-120 imported) was evaluated for its performance by harvesting of wheat crops. The field evaluation was carried out at Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center experimental site. Parameters and measurements considered during this study were crop parameters, operating parameters of the harvesting machine, harvesting losses and cost of harvesting. The average effective field capacity and field efficiency of the harvester was found to be 0.182 ha/h and 81% respectively whereas the effective field capacity in manual harvesting was 0.008 ha/h. Fuel consumption of the reaper was 0.92 lit/h, 5.08 lit/ha. Average value of harvest losses in mechanical harvesting was 1.42 percent only whereas average value of harvesting losses in manual harvesting was 1.73% which is more than that of mechanical harvesting. The cost of harvesting for harvester and for manual harvesting were 479Birr/ha and 1600Birr/ha respectively. The percent saving in the cost of harvesting is reduced by 30% harvesting of wheat with harvester over manual harvesting. Hence, the machine harvesting would be feasible and economical compared to manual harvesting method in terms of time, money and labor requirement. Keywords: walking behind harvester, field capacity, field efficiency, harvesting lose. DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/12-2-01 Publication date: April 30 th 2021

Highlights

Ethiopia is an agrarian economy with a mainly rain fed agricultural system, where wheat (Triticumvulgare) and barley are among the main cereal crops which contribute about 68.3% of the national food grain production (CSA, 2008)
MATERIAL AND METHODS The experiment was conducted at Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center (KARC) research farm near the city of Asella in 2015/16 cropping season
SUMMERY AND CONCLUSIONS Based on the field performance evaluation harvester conducted during harvesting season of 2016/17, it can be summarized as follows:

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Ethiopia is an agrarian economy with a mainly rain fed agricultural system, where wheat (Triticumvulgare) and barley are among the main cereal crops which contribute about 68.3% of the national food grain production (CSA, 2008). Most of the parts of the country have been harvesting manually This is a labour intensive seasonal operation consuming about 18-20% of the Labour required for growing cereal crops (Singh et al, 2008). As a step towards mechanization of the harvesting operation for cereal crops, the alternatives available were considered such as self-propelled combine harvesters and tractor mounted combine harvesters. During the peak season of harvesting, farmers face the difficulty of getting their crop timely reaped due to shortage of agricultural labourers. Non-availability of labor due to increased rural-urban migration Keeping these facts in view, this study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the walking behind harvester machine and introduce technology options, to minimize the cost of harvesting through farm mechanization

MATERIAL AND METHODS

11 Cutting device

AND DISCUSSION

Findings

Harvesting Methods