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ThesisItem Open Access STUDIES ON CONSERVATION MACHINERY SYSTEM UNDER RICE-CHICKPEA CROPPING SYSTEM(Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, 2020) Jitendra Kumar; Dave, A.K.; Verma, A.K.; Shrivastava, G.K.; Saxena, R.R.In a present era many improved implements are available for different tillage and seeding operation. It is very crucial to identifygood practice and suitable implements combination for desired seedbed preparation to maximise crop establishment and yield under rice-chickpea cropping system. To understand, this study was conducted on “studies on conservation machinery system under rice-chickpea cropping system” at Research cum Instructional Farm,IGKV, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) during Kharif-Rabiseason of year 2016 and 2017. The site of experiment having soil as clayey in texture, neutral in reaction, available Nis low, available P2O5is medium, and available K2Ois high. In this study two different experiments were conducted. In rice, different combination of tillage and sowing/planting treatments were tested for cultivation under dry and wet tillage system during kharif. In dry seeding of rice there were five tillage treatments and two methods of sowing whereas, in wet tillage, five tillage treatments were used in combination with mechanical transplanting method. In rabiseason, the chickpea was cultivated under residual of rice plots (dry and wet plots) with four different combination of tillage and seeding method. All the treatments alone or in combination were evaluated in terms of machine parameters and their effect on energy parameters, soil parameters, economic parameters and yield and yield attributing parameters. The finding of the first experiment on the effect of various tillage and sowing practices for rice cultivation and their effect on soil physical properties showed that all the soil parameters, crop growth parameters such as height of plant, tillers numberper plant, yield attributes parameteri.e. length of panicle, weight of panicle, number of sound grains per panicle, test weight (g), yield of grain and straw, net return and B:C ratio were significantly higher in DT3 (cultivator x 2 + direct seeded rice DSR drill sowing). However, the above characters values were found lower and recorded under broadcasting followed by transplanted rice. The optimum desired seed bed for seeding rice was found under tillage treatment DT3 (cultivator x 2 + DSR drill sowing) and the optimum planting bed for transplanting rice was found under treatment WT2 (cultivator x 2 + rotavator x 1 + transplanting). Amongst the methods of establishment, the maximum grain yield was produced in dry tillage direct seeded rice treatment DT3, 57.5 quintalper ha and 50 quintalper haduring 2016 and 2017 respectively and the maximum value of benefit cost ratio was registered 2.65 on mean basis of two year in treatment DT3. The output energy, output-input energy ratio and energy productivity was found best in DT3 (cultivator x 2 + rotavator x 1+ DSR drill) amongst different treatments on the basis of mean data of two years. Based on practices being followed for chickpea cultivation, the best treatment for till condition was found to be DT1C (M.B. Plough x 1 + Cultivator x 2 + Rotavator x 2 + ridge and furrow sowing) followed by DT2C(Cultivator x 2 + Rotavator x 2 + conventional seed cum fertilzer drill sowing) whereas under no till condition, DT3C (No till + Zero till drill sowing)treatment followed by DT4C(No till+ happy seed drill sowing) proved be better based on energy, cost economics and crop parameters.The combination DT3(rice- cultivator x 2 + DSR drill sowing of rice) and DT1C(Chickpea- M.B. plough x 1 + cultivator x 2 + rotavator x 2 + ridge and furrow sowing in residual of dry sowing of rice) was found most effective combination in terms of total productivity of rice-chickpea cropping system under till condition than the other combination of different treatments of rice-chickpea tillage and sowing methods. The zero till drill sowing (DT3C) in chickpea and DT3(rice- cultivator x 2 + DSR drill sowing of rice)of rice recorded maximum benefit cost ratio, output-input energy ratio and energy productivity for chickpea production under no till condition. The decision support system software was created for the selection ofappropriate tractor or machines/implements of a particular size from different makes and model of commercially available tractors and machines/implements for the rice-chickpea cropping system. With a case study the validation of designed DSS software demonstrates its effectiveness in forecasting any conservation machinery system selection.ThesisItem Open Access DEVELOPMENT OF PEDAL OPERATED GROUNDNUT DECORTICATOR(Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.), 2020) Das, Arun; Jogdand, S.V.; Victor, V.M.; Agrawal, Sunil; Pradhan, M.K.; Pisalkar, P.S.Groundnut is the sixth major important oilseed crop in the whole world and it is cultivated by farmers in Chhattisgarh. It is a rich source of nutritional fiber, minerals and vitamins. Decortication is the removal of the groundnut kernel from groundnut pod. There are various methods of groundnut decortication of varying capacity. Farmers of Chhattisgarh are still using the traditional method to decorticate the groundnut pod that causes injury on palm hand, tiredness of finger. Groundnut decortication is a time-consuming and tedious process. This process gives less output and requires high efforts by the user and eventually higher energy input. Today, many of the commercially available decorticator which are operated by hand, fall in this category. Therefore it was conceived to develop such a machine which will require less effort with less energy consumption. To develop various parts of the groundnut decorticator various physical parameters of groundnut pods handsets were studied. Overall dimension of main frame are 1760 mm x 803 mm x 1100 mm. The performance evaluation of pedal operated groundnut decorticator was evaluated by different treatment combination of clearances and moisture contents. Different clearances between rotating drum and rubbing plate. i.e. 8 mm, 10 mm and 12 mm and different moisture contents of ground nut pod i.e. 6.53%, 7.85% and 9.23% dry basis were observed. The Decorticating capacity, output capacity, decorticating efficiency, unshelled pod and kernel broken were 92.41 kg/h, 51.95 kg kernels/h, 86.37 %, 13.62% and 15.65% respectively at the best optimum combination of clearance and moisture content of 10 mm and 6.53 % respectively were found. The total cost charged for the development of per unit pedal operated groundnut decorticator was ₹ 14000 and the operational cost is 90.43 ₹/h including fixed and variable cost. The cost required to decorticate 1 kg of groundnut pod was found ₹ 0.97. The developed pedal operated groundnut decorticator is reliable and satisfactory for the selected variety of groundnut. An attempt has been made to develop a pedal operated groundnut decorticator. It was revealed from the study of literature available that the pedal-operated decorticator provides better performance than a hand-operated decorticator.ThesisItem Open Access DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TRACTOR OPERATED SPIN GROOMER(Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.), 2020) Arvind Kumar; Naik, R.K.; Victor, V.M.; Sonboir, H.L.; Saxena, Ravi R.; Khalkho, DhirajTillage is major operation for seedbed preparation and defined as the physical, chemical and biological manipulation of soil to obtain an optimized germination, seedling establishment and plant growth. Most of the tillage work is currently carried out in Chhattisgarh either by animal drawn equipment or by tractor drawn implement. Tillage requires about 60 % of time and energy during the total crop production. In present days most of the tillage equipment used for cultivation are mainly horizontal type and there was very less work done on the vertical axis rotary equipment. After cultivation of land either by cultivator or rota-tiller some of the roots are adhere to the ground and in successive time it will re-germinated. These roots needed to be removed by the suitable method of cultivation. That’s why a study was under taken to design and develop a self-propelling vertical axis rotary spin groomer. The purpose of the implement development was to cover more area in a single pass to reduce the operational time, collect the uprooted residues and to leave it in the one end of the field. Spin groomer was designed by using a “solid work 2018 software” and developed in a workshop. Major components of the developed implement are Main frame, 3-point hitch, circular wheel, pegs and rake. The frame is for holding the different component of the implement. The pegs are tightened on circular wheel with the help of suitable nut and bolts. Since the implement converts the forward motion of tractor into rotary motion hence an axle was provided at the rear end of the implement which holds the bearing assembly and also circular wheel. The implement was designed to easily match the any kind of tractor having a power range of 35 hp or more The developed spin groomer was tested in the field at different conditions and statistically evaluated. The moisture content, bulk density and cone index of the soil of test plot was found to be 22.90 %, 1.40 g/cm3 and 0.236 kg/cm2 respectively. Two operating parameters were taken in 3 levels of each i.e., speed of operation (2, 3 and 4 km/h) and angle of pegs (0º, 40º and 60º). Number of weeds, weeding efficiency (%) and mean soil clod diameter (mm) were measured as dependent parameter. The other parameters such as effective working width (mm), wheel slip (%), field efficiency (%), actual field capacity (ha/h), theoretical field capacity (ha/h) and fuel consumption (l/h) were also calculated. The developed spin groomer (T1) was also compared with rotavator (T2), disc harrow (T3) and cultivator (T4). Minimum no. of weeds after operation, maximum weeding efficiency and minimum mean soil clod diameter was found 18, 81.63 % and 15.40 mm respectively at a speed of 4 km/hr and peg angle of 40º. The other parameters such as effective working width of 1.40 m, wheel slip of 13.33 %, field capacity of 0.50 ha/h and field efficiency of 81.04 % was noted at a speed of 4 km/h and peg angle of 40º. During operation maximum fuel consumed per hour was found 4.50 l/h at speed of 2 km/h and it was found minimum 3.67 l/h at a speed of 4 km/h. Cost of operation of the implement was found to be 604.48 Rs. /h and on the basis of rupees per hectare it was found 1208.96. on comparison with the cost of operation with the other implements such as rotavator, disc harrow and cultivator it was found minimum.ThesisItem Open Access DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A TRACTOR OPERATED RAISED BED ONION BULB PLANTER(Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.), 2020) Devojee, Bhookya; Rathinakumari, A. Carolin; Dave, A. K.; Jogdand, S. V.; Sharma, G. L.; Saxena, R. R.India has witnessed increase in horticulture production over the last few years. Horticulture has been considered as one of the potential agriculture-based enterprise in accelerating the growth of countries economy. One of the most important variables that decides the successful operations of a farming system is the availability of farm labour and its use. As the labour availability in rural area is diminishing, sustaining as well as increasing the productivity requires the use of suitable machinery. Compared to any other vegetable crop, onion is planted with very close spacing. Due to this, the labour requirement for planting is high, also labourers demand higher wages for onion planting. This leads to higher cost of cultivation. Hence it was felt necessary to design and develop a suitable raised bed onion planter. To complete the task studies were conducted. The onion bulbs were divided into nine categories and the physical and mechanical properties of onion bulbs required for designing onion planter were determined by using standard procedure. Experiments were conducted to observe the effect of different planting orientations of onion bulbs on growth parameters. Experiments were conducted with four sizes of onion (grade I (2-3 g weight), grade II (3-4 g weight), grade III (4-5 g weight) and grade IV (5-6 g weight)); four cup sizes (C1-35 mm, C2-31 mm, C3-29 mm and C4-25 mm); three levels of angle of inclination (60º, 75º and 90º) and four levels peripheral speed of metering unit (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2 kmph.) on the developed experimental setup of laboratory to optimize the design parameters. The observations on per cent singles; per cent doubles; per cent multiples; per cent missings and per cent bulb damage were recorded. All observations were statistically analyzed and a prototype based on optimized parameters were design, developed and evaluated. Effect of size of onion was significant in all the selected physical and mechanical properties except true density and moisture content. The length, width and thickness ranged from 21.21±2.60 to 32.31±3.30, 13.54±1.77 to 30.95±2.91 and 10.91±1.40 to 22.63±2.15 mm. The geometric mean diameter of onion bulb ranged from 14.54±0.96 to 28.22±2.04 mm. The sphericity of onion bulb ranged from 0.69±0.08 to 0.87±0.06. The shape index for grades <2 g, 2-3 g and 3-4 g were found to be 1.78±0.32, 1.711±0.25, 1.59±0.25 respectively, > 1.5 and for the remaining grades i.e. 4-5 g to > 9 g the shape index values were found to be < 1.5. The projected area of onion bulb ranged from 1.55±0.30 to 5.5±0.51 cm 2. The one hundred weight of onion bulb ranged from 121.6±6.30 to 1185±19.59 g. The bulk density of onion bulb ranged from 480.19±13.13 (< 2 g) to 1086±205.22 (> 9 g) kg m-3. The maximum true density of onion bulb was 1086±205.22 kg m-3 obtained in > 9 g, while minimum true density of onion bulb was 950.70±257.92 kg m-3 in < 2-3 g. The average moisture content of onion bulb was found to be 80.02 ±0.43 %. The angle of repose ranged from 20.71±1.92 to 40.61±3.68º. The coefficient of friction was determined for onion bulbs on different surfaces such as, mild steel, ply wood and galvanized iron. The coefficient of friction for mild steel, ply wood, and galvanized iron ranged 0.628±0.03 to 0.456±0.016, 0.236±0.03 to 0.174±0.016 and 0.344±0.01 to 0.310±0.017 respectively. The individual observations of kharif, rabi and pooled data analysis of effect of planting orientation suggests that root portion down planting gave highest germination, plant height and yield of onion followed by root portion inclined and horizontal. In the laboratory with (2-3 g) of onion size with four cups, the maximum per cent singles (79.09 %) were recorded whereas the minimum values of per cent doubles (4.90 %), per cent multiples (2.26 %), per cent missings (1.76 %) and per cent bulb damage (0.00 %) were found. Similar trends were also observed for (3-4g), (4-5) and (5-6g) onion size. However, amongst the four cup, the values of per cent singles were maximum (81.03 %) with cup 4 at 1 kmph speed and 90 degree angle of inclination and values of per cent doubles (8.67 %), multiples (5.36 %), missings (4.94 %) and bulb damage (2 %) were minimum. So, the cup size 25 mm, speed of travel 1 kmph and angle of inclination as 90 degree was optimized for metering mechanism. On the basis of optimized parameters, the bulb planter was designed and fabricated successfully. Under the field trials, the performance parameters were found to 71.84 ± 1.14 per cent singles, 8.94 ± 0.63 per cent doubles, 11.48 ± 0.42 per cent multiples 7.70 ± 0.24 per cent missings and 1 ± 0.138 per cent bulb damage. Performance indices in terms of miss index, multiple index, quality feed index, precision, mean and standard deviation were found to be 0.076±0.002, 0.114±0.004,0.808±0.002, 0.14±0.005, 10.63±0.144 and 0.49±0.05, respectively. The raised bed onion bulb planter performance parameters in terms of theoretical field capacity, effective field capacity, field efficiency, fuel consumption, depth of planting, row to row spacing and plant to plant spacing 0.15 ha/h, 0.122 ±0.002 ha h-1, 81.7±0.146 %, 3.17±0.035 l h-1, 4.112 ±0.134 cm, 15.00±0.053 cm and 10.44±0.084 cm. The cost of prototype and cost of operation was Rs.49, 300/- and Rs. 4, 211.91/ ha, respectively. The cost saved over manual planting was about 58 per cent. The precision value of developed planter was observed 14 per cent, hence the machine falls under the category of good performance.ThesisItem Open Access DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF TRACTOR DRAWN FYM APPLICATOR(Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.), 2020) Sahu, Manisha; Victor, V. M.; Verma, Ajay; Kerketta, Neelmani; Agrawal, Sunil; Dave, A. K.Organic farming is a technique of agriculture which depends on green manure, compost and biological pest control. Due to increased shortage of agricultural labour during the peak season, farmers have to face great difficulties in farmyard manure (FYM) application in field. Therefore development of FYM applicator with facility of seed planting is necessary for distributes FYM and seeds in accurate quantity in band uniformly in the field. However, these techniques help to increase economic value of manure. Therefore the tractor drawn FYM applicator provision with seed planting, subject of this report was designed to full fill the above requirement. Solid-works design and drawing of the machine was prepared and provided to the National Agro manufacturing company, Ludhiyana for its fabrication and modification of the machine was carried out at college workshop in the department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, SVCAET&RS, FAE, IGKV, Raipur. The overall length × width × height of the machine was 2415 × 1500 × 1350 mm. The average moisture content, bulk density, dry matter content, angle of repose and angle of friction of manure pit were 28.97 % db, 421.21 kg/m3, 71.03 %, 35° and 34°, respectively. Developed machine was tested in the laboratory and field. In laboratory testing application rate of FYM was ranged 1.77 to 24.93 t/ha at 1/4th, 1/2nd, 1/3rdand full orifice opening, respectively at different forward speed 2 to 6 km/h and different moisture content 13 to 31 % (db). The inclined plate metering mechanism was used as seed metering unit. Average seed rate 24.18 kg/ha was found for 10 cm seed spacing and 22.5 cm row spacing at the tractor forward speed of 6 km/h. FYM hopper capacity was 302 kg. Experiment was held to know about effect of machine parameters on application rate and band placement of FYM on kharif rice during 2018. The treatments comprised of two FYM application methods i.e. (manual broadcasting and FYM applicator with provision of planting unit) with control and three doses of nitrogen (100%, 75% and 50% RDN). Rice yield at 75 % RDN was at par to the 100% RDN through developed machine. Therefore 25% farmyard manure was saved through uniform application of FYM in band form. Effective field capacity of tractor drawn FYM applicator was found to be 0.81 ha/h with field efficiency 70.15% at the forward speed of 5.73 km/h. Cost of FYM application and seeding operation through developed machine was ₹691/ha. Traditional method of FYM spreading and planting with existing planter required additional ₹1048/ha. The developed machine saved cost and energy were 60 and 41 percent, respectively as compare to the traditional method of FYM application and planting operation. The developed machine was found efficient, economical and energy efficient. Increase in orifice opening and moisture content it increases the FYM application rate. Farmyard manure application rate was decreased with increasing forward speed and decreasing moisture content. FYM band width ranged 29 mm to 115 mm at combination of all moisture content, all orifice opening and all forward speed which clearly shows that shovel type furrow opener satisfactorily covered the opened furrow width by FYM band in the soil.ThesisItem Open Access DEVELOPMENT OF POWER TILLER ATTACHMENT FOR CABBAGE HARVESTING(Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, 2020) Singh, Yuvraj; Mishra, B.P.; Jogdand, S.V.; Kerketta, N.; Saxena, R.R.Chhattisgarh ranks at 8th position in the production of cabbage in India. Area covered in Chhattisgarh was about 20168 ha with production 374370 tonnes. In India it covers about 4% of total area under production. It is currently grown throughout the year. It is cultivated in 0.310 Mha with the total production of 6.870 mt with an average productivity of 22.1 mt/ha. Harvesting of cabbage is the most important operation in the field. In field, this operation is carried out manually which is very time consuming and labour requirement is also very high which leads to poor economy for the farmers. A fruitful harvesting mechanism need to be introduced for increasing economy of cabbage growing farmers. For the development, some investigation carried out for harvesting of cabbage. This cutting unit may help in reducing the problem of cabbage harvesting. In agricultural practice, cost economics is most important term; In order to save the cost of operation by saving the time and labour requirement a cabbage cutting unit was developed. To develop a cutting unit for cabbage, many things are considered. The new developed device performed well in the field without much damaging the plants; the cutting blade is made of hardened MS sheet therefore it has long life and lower cost of operation. A cabbage cutting unit was attached with the power tiller to perform the harvesting operation. To select the best mechanical parameter the performance of developed cutting attachment was tested in different conditions by changing the cutting angle (A1=3º below horizontal, A2=0º with horizontal, A3=3º above horizontal), cutting height (H1=300 mm, H2=350 mm and H3=400 mm) and operational speeds (S1=1.5 km/h, S2=2.0 km/h, S3=3.0 km/h) of power tiller. The performance was evaluated in terms of effective field capacity, field efficiency, harvesting loss, cost of operation and energy analysis. It was found that by increasing the speed of operation effective field capacity, field efficiency and fuel consumption increases. On the other hand, decrease in field efficiency was obtained by change in cutting angle and cutting height and harvesting loss was increased by change in cutting angle, cutting height and operational speed. Average travelling speed of power tiller was 2.16 km/h. It was found normal, same as power tiller works in the normal field condition. Fluctuation of operational speed was negligible as compared to normal working condition. Fuel consumption of power tiller was 1.19 l/h which varies with the operational speed of power tiller. Effective field capacity of power tiller attachment was in the range of 0.058-0.155 ha/h. Field efficiency was found 51.56 to 69.56 %. Harvesting loss was obtained in the range of 3.33 to 36.67 % depending on cutting angle and cutting height. Fabrication cost and operational cost of power tiller attachment was found Rs.1490 and 901.48 Rs/ha respectively.ThesisItem Open Access DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF SELF-UNLOADING GRAIN COLLECTION SYSTEM FOR TRACTOR OPERATED AXIAL FLOW PADDY THRESHER(Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, 2020) Tuteja, Harshaj Singh; Naik, R.K.; Dave, A.K.; Pisalkar, P.S.; Katre, P.; Pradhan, M.K.Threshing is one of the critical post harvest operation in paddy cultivation, which is laborious, involving more man hours and human drudgery. The threshing operation needs at least 7-8 labour for loading the crop in hopper and unloading the grain from the outlet with constant bending posture. Due to prolonged bending posture the operator gets tired and the working efficiency is also affected adversely. It also leads to body part discomfort, pain at various organs, as well as increase the time of work. . Labours are also engaged in collecting grain and bagging it at other place which leads to need of additional labour. The performance evaluation of thresher was studied on paddy variety Mahamaya to ascertain the effect of feed rates(4.5t/h,5.0t/h,5.5t/h), moisture content(13%,15%,17%) and cylinder speed(15.54m/sec,17.27m/sec,19.42m/sec) with four replication. The threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, threshing capacity and different losses were 99.42%, 98.91, 2.5t/h, 0.4% respectively at the best and optimum combination of feed rate, moisture content and cylinder speed of 5.0t/h,15% and 17.27m/sec. To evaluate the BPDS (body parts discomfort score) a study was conducted in three districts of Chhattisgarh i.e Raipur, Dhamtari and Balod. Sixty persons (subjects) between age group of 20-60 years were selected randomly and their 16 body regions along with weight and stature were measured. The mean, maximum, minimum, standard deviation, 5th and 95th percentile values were calculated. Self unloading system of thresher was designed and developed by using CATIA V5 2014 and fabricated at Gurunanak Agriculture Private Ltd, Kumhari, Raipur. The developed machine was tested for paddy at farmers field as well as at Instructional Research Farm, IGKV, Raipur. The cost of the developed prototype was 0.20 lakh. There was a cost saving of 2.86%/h and labour saving of 50% over earlier practice. The BPDS(body parts discomfort score) was decreased significantly in many parts of body like shoulder (27.55%), wrist (34.04%), clavicle (22.92%), arm (48.15%), neck(18.18), lower back(25.25%), knee(42.86%) etc after using developed attachment system in thresher as compared to traditional method. In addition to this, the problems like fatigue, musculoskeletal disorders and health hazards were eliminated and work efficiency was increased.ThesisItem Open Access COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF MACHINE FOR CROP RESIDUE MANAGEMENT IN RICE-WHEAT CROPPING SYSTEM(Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, 2020) Dewangan, Sourabh Kumar; Naik, R.K.; Jogdand, S.V.; Pisalkar, P.; Ramole, R.Rice (Oryza sativa L.) and Wheat (Triticumaestivum) is the most extensively cultivated cereal crops in India and other countries. Crop residues are parts of the plants which are left over the field after crops have been harvested by a combine harvester. Combine harvester is used to harvest the rice crop, which leaves behind a swath of loose rice straw. These problems could be solved by the farmers with burning of the crop residue (90-140 Mt annually) which cost them very less that to become more emissions causes numerous health issues and leads to a global warming world. The experiment was conducted in Rabi season at Research Farm, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.). In the experiment, for crop residue management in rice wheat cropping system various farm machines were used viz zero till happy seeder (T1), mulcher + zero till drill (T2), zero till drill (T3) and conventional system, laid-out in randomized block design with four treatments and five replications. In this experiment, machine parameter, soil parameter, residue parameter, plant parameter, energy analysis and cost analysis measured during field operation. In T2 treatment fuel consumption was measured to be higher as compared to other treatments because there operates rotary mulching and zero till sowing. Happy seeder cut higher length of straw as compared to mulcher. T1 and T2 was higher conservation of moisture content of the soil caused by incorporation of rice straw. In the T3 treatment, a 23 % reduction in bulk density was measured, which is higher than in other treatments.The pH, electrical conductivity, potassium, sulfur, manganese and zinc content of the soil were reduced in all treatments. The soil's pH was decreased by around 8.82 % in T1. Highly reduction of electrical conductivity of the soil was measured 22.22% in T2. Highest organic carbon content (12.64%) was measured in T4. Lowest reduction of nitrogen (4.63 %) was found in T2 treatment. Phosphorus and iron of the soil was increased in all treatments but it was reduced 0.50 % and 47.75% in T4 treatment, respectively. In the crop parameter of all treatment was not significantly different. Higher plant population was measured in T4 treatment. Average higher yield (46.68 q//ha) was observed in T3 treatment and average lower yield (42.76 q/ha) was recorded in mulcher + zero till drill (T2) treatment as compared to another while in T1 and T4 average grain yield were recorded 46.08 and 45.8 q/ha, respectively. Treatment T4 has been found highest straw-grain ratio (1.35) among theother treatments. Maximum weight of 1000 grain (49.70g) was measured in T2 treatment. Highest energy consumption (5535.73MJ/ha) and cost requirement (3179.79 ₹/ha) were measured in conventional system.ThesisItem Open Access DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER FRIENDLY MANUALLY OPERATED HARVESTER(Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.), 2019) Sinha, Priya; Jogdand, S. V.; Dave, A. K.; Victor, V. M.; Sonboir, H. L.; Saxena, R. R.Harvesting of crop is one of the important agricultural operations which demands considerable amount of labour. The availability and cost of labour during harvesting season is a serious problem. The shortage of labour during harvesting season and vagaries of weather causes great losses to the farmers. Harvesting constitutes one of the most time consuming and laborious operations of farming as it is done mainly with sickles, despite all its deficiencies, in the absence of suitable/improved harvesting equipment. Manual harvesting is a cumbersome job and requires about 180 to 200 man h/ha to harvest a crop. Due to increased shortage of agricultural labour during the peak season, farmers have to face great difficulties in timely harvesting of their crops. In India, rice and wheat are the major crops. In terms of cultivated area and production of rice in the world, India ranks first. Wheat is the second most important food crops after rice crop. In India rice and wheat harvesting is conventionally done manually by sickle. The labour requirement for harvesting by sickle is high. This results in higher cost of harvesting. Manually harvester mechanism is a relatively new concept of harvesting of crops. These machines use directly human power to operate the cutter bar and conveying mechanism through chain and sprocket gear. The principle offers several advantages, especially cut the crops uniformly and man hour requirement is less as compare to the sickle. This machine was ergonomically suited in field condition and their capability to deal with harvesting of rice and wheat crop. With a view to develop a manually harvester for the women workers of Chhattisgarh as well as other state of India for ease of work and to minimize the effect of machine on physiological response of workers. Machine consists of the various parts such as power source, power transmission system, crop cutting and crop conveying unit, machine transporting unit, cutter bar and Main frame. Human power is used as a power source to supply power to cutter bar and conveyor of the harvester. The harvesting machine is designed with the chain sprocket for power transmission system. In this machine human power is directly transmitted to the ground wheel with the help of chain sprocket system. The chain sprocket system operates four bar mechanism (cutter bar) and star wheel simultaneously. Cutter bar is provided to cut the crop and star wheel to guide the crop towards cutter bar. A reciprocating type cutter bar having standard knife section of 76.2 mm stroke length and two cuts per stroke is selected. A handle made of ms pipe of 25 mm diameter and length 450 mm was provided on the basis of anthropometric data of Chhattisgarh female workers at the rear side of the machine to push and guide the machine forward. The percentile values of mean of three different age group (22-32, 32-42 and 42-50 years) of female workers for designing of manually operated harvester. Mainly shoulder height and elbow height were taken into consideration. Hence mean value of shoulder height and elbow height 118.71, 123.06, 130.85 and 85.55, 93.68, 109.67 and grip diameter (inside)were found as 2.42, 3.1 and 4.10 for 5th, 50th, and 95th percentile. However, maximum field capacity was obtained with 1.65 km h-1 but, the losses at this speed was higher. So average speed of 1.5 km h-1 is recommended for operation. The average power required for pushing the machine was 106.74 to 137.69 N for wheat crop and 113.66 to 137.8 N for rice crop respectively. The effective field capacity of the machine was found to be 0.042 ha h-1 at forward speed of 1.5 km h-1 for wheat crop. The field capacity was 70.00 per cent. The result showed that the field capacity of the machine compare to hand sickle was found to be 5.64 times higher of the machine. Similarly results obtained for rice harvesting showed that the optimum forward speed of the machine was 1.5 km h-1. The effective field capacity of the machine was found to be 0.041 ha h-1. The field efficiency was 68.30 per cent. The machine was found very efficient, economical and also energy saver. The ergonomic evaluation was done for developed gender friendly manually operated harvester. Harvesting with manually operated harvester was found as a moderate workload. The physiological cost of work was under controlled limit for wheat and rice crop of 94.42 to 125.57 beats per minute and 97.90 to 122.90 respectively. Energy expenditure rate of wheat and rice crop of 0.40 to 0.75 l min-1 and 0.44 to 0.72 l min-1 was recorded, so that operator can be operating developed machine for 30 minutes continuously. The overall discomfort rating for operating the same was in the category of light discomfort to moderate discomfort. The body parts such as fore arm, wrist, palm, thighs, legs and foot felt discomfort due to operator has to hold the handle and walk behind the manually operated harvester in field condition. The machine cost and the operating cost were Rs 13400 .00 and Rs 1153.00 for wheat crop and Rs 1181.95 for rice crop per hectare respectively. The harvesting energy required for operation was 109.25 MJ ha-1 which was less as compared to manual harvesting by sickle of wheat and rice crop.
