Performance test of the combine harvester machine for rice harvesting in Indrapuri, Aceh Besar District

Abstract

Paddy is a very important agricultural crop for mankind because more than half of the world’s population and almost the entire population of Indonesia depend on this plant as a source of food. Harvesting is a very important process in rice production, because in this process it is alleged that the level of yield loss is very high. Paddy harvesting can be done by modern farming (combine harvester) and conventional (manual), therefore it is necessary to know the effectiveness by analyzing the performance and efficiency of the two ways. This study aims to examine the performance of rice harvesting using a combine harvester and conventional machines in Indrapuri District, Aceh Besar District. The results of the combine harvester research show that the theoretical field capacity is 0.42 ha/hour, the effective field capacity is 0.25 ha/hour, efficiency is 60.03%, the working capacity is 743.54 kg/hour, the fuel consumption is 10.25 L/hour, and yield loss of 1.31%. Conventional harvesting shows a field capacity of 0.0049 ha/hour/person, thresher working capacity of 172.6908 kg/hour, thresher efficiency of 98.5417%, thresher fuel consumption of 0.5147 L/hour, and the percentage of yield loss is 3.8776%. Based on data on harvesting capacity, the combine harvester shows a better performance then conventional harvesting.