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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
The tractor drawn turmeric digger cum separator was developed with an objective to have mechanical means for harvesting of turmeric crop. The components were designed and developed keeping in view of objective crop, soil and machine parameters. The machine consisted of a main frame, digging blade, depth gauge wheel, power transmission system, and conveying mechanism. The performance evaluation of developed machine was evaluated at Khanapur village Parbhani district of Maharashtra State. The experiment was undertaken in black cotton soil; the range of observed moisture content was 12.23 to 16.28 percent moisture content (db) at the time of harvesting. The size of the experiment plot was 0.5 ha was taken for observations. During field testing of machines, draft, digging efficiency, per cent damage of turmeric rhizome and fuel consumption, separation index and power requirement were calculated. The field capacity was also measured. The turmeric digger cum separator was tested at three different shapes of digging blades and at three different levels of forward speed i.e. 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5 km h-1. The draft and power requirement for harvesting turmeric digger cum separator was found to be draft 2199 N and Power requirement 0.91 kW respectively. Fuel consumption for particular operation was observed to be 6.12 l h-1.The field capacity of turmeric digger cum separator was calculated 0.47 ha h-1. The digging efficiency, damage of rhizome and separation index of turmeric digger cum separator was recorded to be 97.35 ha hr 3.34 per cent and 0.24 per cent.