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  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on conventional and improved tillage practices for sowing wheat in paddy harvested field
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2009-09) Rathod, Sunil Laxman; Pateriya, R.N.
  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Design and development of an animal drawn subsurface manure applicator
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2019-09) Negi, Ankit; Singh, Jayant
    Agriculture is a production oriented sector in which farmers apply various crop inputs. The farmers are over applying the chemical fertilizers to fulfil global food demand. The over utilization of chemical fertilizers such as Urea and DAP has undermine the quality of soil. Moreover, the over use of these chemical fertilizers have drastic effect on the human health avoid the volatilization of Nitrogen in the form of Ammonia and can enhance the properties of soil. Therefore an animal drawn subsurface manure applicator was developed and its performance was evaluated in laboratory as well as in field conditions. The study shows that screw type metering mechanism is appropriate for the developed machine. The metering mechanism had to deliver to. The study shows that there is insignificant effect of hopper height and travel speed on the uniformity of manure distribution. The theoretical manure rate, actual manure rate and efficiency of screw conveyer were observed to be as well as on the environment. The subsurface application manure can 11.62, 7.01 and 60.32%. The draft requirement for untilled field conditions was observed as 0.63, 0.68, 0.68 and 0.77 kN for the speed of 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 km/h at the 50 mm depth of operation. Similarly, the draft was observed as 0.72, 0.77, 0.82 and 0.86 kN for the Speed of 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 km/h at the 100 mm depth of operation. Also, the draft was observed as 1.20, 1.30, 1.34 and 1.39 kN respectively for the speed of 1.5, 2, 25 and 3 km/h at the 150 mm depth of operation. The draft requirement for tilled field conditions was observed as 0.53, 0.63, 0.68 and 0.68 kN for the speed of 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 km/h at the 50 mm depth of operation. Also, the draft requirement was observed as 0.73, 0.78, 0.87 and 0.87 kN for the speed of 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 km/h at the 100 mm depth of operation. Also, the draft requirement was observed as 0.92, 1.01, 1.06 and 1.10 KN for the speed of 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 km/h at the 150 mm depth of operation.
  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Variable cost analysis of different agricultural tractors
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2007-07) Sanchavat, Hitesh; Verma, R.B.
    Tractor power is major source of energy input in the farm mechanization. Improving the performance the agricultural tractor has gained a unique importance due to increasing cost of farm inputs and low prices received for agricultural produce. Study was conducted on the effect of power range and make of tractor on the maintenance, repair and fuel cost of tractor. Tractors were classified into three power ranges .i.e. 16-26 kW, 26-36 kW and 36-46 kW and in each power range four make (M1, M2, M3 and M4) were selected for study. The basic data for maintenance and repair cost analysis of tractors were collected from the University Farms, Crop Research Centre, Instructional Dairy Farm and the farms in the near by area of Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agricultural and Technology, Pantnagar. Field experiment was conducted to evaluate fuel and specific fuel consumption of various make and power range of tractors at Crop Research Centre, Pantnagar, during the year 2006-2007. Variable cost in 16-26 kW tractors was Rs. 110.73, 114.46, 130.39 and 112.96 per hour for M1, M2, M3 and M4 make tractor respectively. Variable cost for 26-36 kW tractors was Rs. 146.29, 151, 170.89 and 176.89 per hour for M1, M2, M3 and M4 make tractor respectively. For 36-46 kW tractors variable cost was Rs. 197.22, 206.92, 217.19 and 270.72 per hour for M1, M2, M3 and M4 make tractor respectively. There was variation in maintenance, repair and fuel costs among the power ranges and make of tractors. Variable cost was minimum for M1 make tractors. Variable cost was maximum for M3 make tractors in 16-26 kW power range and it was maximum for M4 make tractors in 26-36 and 36-46 kW power ranges. Make of tractor and power have significant effect on specific fuel consumption. Variable cost and specific fuel consumption were increased with the power of tractor. Based on the variable cost and specific fuel consumption it was concluded that M1 make tractors have least expenditure under variable costs as compared to other make of tractors during initial 4000 hours of work.
  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Design and development of a manually operated rice transplanter
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2019-08) Deepak Kumar; Pateriya, R.N.
    Rice is a major food grain crop and staple food of millions of people in the world. About 90 per cent of rice grown in the world is produced and consumed only in Asian countries. In India rice crop is planted in almost all the states and the area under rice cultivation was 43.79 Mha and the total estimated rice production of India was 112.91 MT in 2017-18 (Agricultural Statistics at a Glance 2018, MA&FW. Rice crop is generally sown by means of two methods in India, i.e. broadcasting of seeds and transplanting of paddy seedlings. Out of these two methods, transplanting of seedlings is the most common practice in India. However the main problem in the production of rice is transplanting operation, which is tedious and labour consuming, because a person has to stand in puddled field and and bend for putting seedlings by hands into the soil. Optimum plant density and timely operation of transplanting has been considered essential for maximizing the yield of rice. During the transplanting season, there occurs an acute shortage of labour. Hence mechanical transplanting has been observed to be most promising option. The power operated transplanter is also available but the socio-economic condition of the Indian farmer dose not to permit them to purchase the same due to its high cost. Hence there is need to design a manually operated, low cost and light weight rice transplanter. Therefore the present study was carried out at GBPUA&T, Pantnagar for the design and development of a manually operated rice transplanter for root washed seedlings. The performance evaluation was carried out with three level of seedling age (20, 25 and 30 days) at three levels of water depth (0-30, 30-60 and 60-100 mm) in three different level of field preparation (low, medium and high). The missing hills, floating hills, damaged hills, buried hills, hill to hill spacing, planting efficiency, actual field capacity and field efficiency were evaluated during experiment. The minimum missing hills (16.7 %) was observed with 20 days old seedlings in 0-30 mm water depth at low level of field preparation. The minimum floating hills (15.1 %) was recorded at medium level field preparation in 0-30 mm water depth with 30 days seedling age. The minimum damaged hills (5.5 %) was obtained in 30-60 mm water depth with 30 days seedling age at medium level of field preparation. The minimum buried hills (3.6 %) was observed with 30 days old seedlings at medium level of field preparation in 0-30 mm water depth. The maximum planting efficiency (83.3 %) was obtained in 0-30 mm water depth with 20 days seedling age at low level field preparation. The actual field capacity and field efficiency were obtained as 0.02 ha/h and 62.26 % respectively.
  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Design, development and testing of jatropha (Jatropha curcas.L) fruit decorticator
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2006-07) Surya Prakash, D.S.P.L; Singh, M.P.
    A decorticating machine for separating the seed from husk of Jatropha fruit is ideal for large scale seed collection required by biodiesel industries. The decorticator was designed to suit the decortication requirements for Jatropha fruit after studying the physical properties of Jatropha fruit, seed and salient features for groundnut decorticator, accordingly the various design dimensions for different components were decided and it was fabricated in the department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering laboratory, College of Technology, G.B.P.U.A&T, Pantnagar. The testing of the decorticator was conducted for four factors, each at 3 levels e.g. for cylinder speed 230 rpm(3.61m/s) ,262 rpm(4.11 m/s),295 rpm(4.63 m/s) and concave clearance 20 ,22.5 and 25 mm. Three types of rasp bar pyramidal projection, straight projection, helical projection and feed rates of 1.5, 1.75, 2 kg/min. The test results were analyzed by four factorial CRD using standard programme. The pyramidal projections type rasp bar has decortication efficiency in the range of 90.40 to 98.81 %. The visible seed damage, blown seed and cleaning efficiency varied from 0.52 to 2.66 % and 1.23 to 16.04 % and 95.74 to 99.50 % respectively. The straight projection type rasp bar has decortication efficiency in the range of 91.28 to 97.69%.The visible seed damage, cleaning efficiency and blown seed varied from 1.02 to 4.32 %, 97.16 to 99.41% and 1.48 to 14.70% respectively. The decortication efficiency for helical projection rasp bar varied from 87.40 to 98.49%, visible seed damage from 1.03 to 8.46 %, cleaning efficiency was in the range of 98.28 to 99.17 % and blown seed in the range of 1.15 to 14.92 %. On the basis of results obtained, it can be summarized that the performance of pyramidal projection rasp bar was better compared to straight and helical projection rasp bar types. In pyramidal projections rasp bar allows for proper holding of fruits because of pyramidal projections which have very small contact area with fruits during the application of shear force as it impinges and tears off the husk at a single point, thus causing lesser visible seed damage and better decortication efficiency compared to other two types of rasp bar. The best parameters of Jatropha fruit decorticator were found at cylinder speed 262 rpm (4.11 m/s), concave clearance 22.5 mm (depending on variety), blower speed 524 rpm (6.86 m/s) and eccentric speed 152 rpm and feed rate 1.75 kg/min. The power consumption was found to be 0.7 kWh.The power required to decorticate was 0.0077 kWh/kg of Jatropha fruit at feed rate of 1.75 kg/min. The operating cost of decorticator was found to be Rs 13.85/hr and Rs 0.15/kg of Jatropha curcas. L fruit.
  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Design and development of a deep and differential rate fertilizer applicator and its field evaluation on potato crop
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2006-07) Rababi, Suman; Thakur, T.C.
    A deep and differential rate fertilizer applicator was designed and developed by selecting the best parameters from the previous studies. The equipment consisted of a rectangular frame, a central winged tine, two shallow winged leading tines, depth control device, a fertilizer box of 50 kg capacity, positive feed type fertilizer metering device and a ground wheel with chain and sprocket arrangement for transmitting power to metering mechanism. The equipment had the option to place fertilizers deeper (350 mm) with the central tine while placing the fertilizer upto 250 mm depth of soil with the leading tines, which would help to place fertilizer at different depths in single pass. All the three tines had their own metering system. Options were given to meter and deliver only 20% and as well as 15% of total fertilizer rate with the central tine whereas the remaining amount would be delivered by two shallow leading tines. The laboratory evaluation of the developed equipment showed co-efficient of uniformity more than 90% for the treatments decided for field evaluation of the equipment. The field evaluation was conducted in a sandy loam soil with four treatments viz. Disk Harrow × 4 (120 mm depth) + Planker x 1 + Application of full doses of P and K with developed equipment (80% at 150 mm and rest at 250 mm depth) + Planker x 1 (T1), Disk Harrow × 4 (120 mm depth) + Planker x 1 + Application of 80% of full doses of P and K with developed equipment (80% at 150 mm and rest at 250 mm depth) + Planker x 1 (T2), Disk Harrow × 4 (120 mm depth) + Planker x 1 + Application of full doses of P and K at 200 mm depth with developed equipment + Planker x 1 (T3) and Disk Harrow × 4 (120 mm depth) + Planker x 1+ Conventional fertilizer application (broadcasting) + Mixing with Disk Harrow (T4). The potato crop response studies showed that the morphological parameters like number of leaves, height and thickness of plant, dry matter accumulation in roots and plants were better in deep and differential rate placement. Moreover, the root profile study revealed the superiority of deep and differential placement over broadcast method of fertilizer application. The yield of potato was maximum in T2 (34.09 t/ha) which was very close to T1 (33.44 t/ha) but the values were almost 24% higher than T4. The results indicated to savings of around 20% fertilizer but at the cost of marginal decrease in dry matter of tubers (5.27%). Percentage of Grade-A tubers was maximum in T4 (30.40%) which was 2.08% higher than T1, 4.8% higher than T2 and 14.8% higher than T3.
  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Design improvements and field evaluation of conservation agriculture machineries for direct drilling in rice-wheat cropping system
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2006-07) Mudi, Rajib; Thakur, T.C.
    The field experiments were conducted on four conservation agriculture machines i.e. Inverted-T opener ZT drill (M1), Double disc opener ZT drill (M2), Star wheel punch planter (M3) and Rotary powered disc residue drill (M4) for direct drilling of rice and wheat during the year 2005-06 at the experimental field of Pantnagar, Uttaranchal (India) to select the best drill for a specific condition for further acceleration of the conservation tillage technology. Incorporation of design improvements in conservation agriculture machines were made for making them suitable for field operations under different field residue conditions in rice-wheat cropping system. Studies were conducted to investigate the effect on soil physical properties, machine performance, water requirement, crop establishment and overall economics of the tillage systems. The field experiments conducted in silty loam soil showed that soil dry bulk density up to 100 mm depth increased gradually from initial value of 1.40 g/cc to 1.52 g/cc at the time of harvest under zero tillage. The fuel consumption was observed maximum as 7.45 l/ha in case of rotary powered disc residue drill and minimum of 4.15 l/ha in star wheel punch planter. Time required for sowing operation was approximately same for all the machines. The soil moisture content was observed higher of about 1.01 and 1.31 percentage points in rice season and 1.31 and 1.34 percentage points in wheat season at 2 DAS and 130 DAS, respectively with field condition of chopped stubbles as mulch (C2) than the conventional tillage (C3) and irrigation water requirement was also found minimum in case of mulch condition. The weed density was maximum in standing stubble (C1) field condition, whereas it was minimum in conventional tillage. The machines M2 and M4 produced better results than other machines in terms of crop growth parameters viz. plant emergence, number of tillers/m2, plant height, number of spikes, number of grains/spike and test weight. The grain and straw yields of rice were found a maximum of 6.25 and 8.60 t/ha with the machine M2, whereas it was minimum of 5.31 and 7.07 t/ha with the machine M3; but for wheat crop, maximum grain and straw yields (3.77 and 5.17 t/ha) were found with M2, whereas, minimum grain yield (3.33 t/ha) was found with M1 and minimum straw yield was (4.61 t/ha) with M3. Maximum net income of Rs 32681/ha was found with double disc opener ZT drill under field condition, C2 in rice season, whereas, it was Rs 29002/ha with rotary powered disc residue drill under same field condition in wheat season. Maximum net income of Rs 59606/ha was obtained in case of double disc opener ZT drill under field condition, C2 in rice-wheat cropping system. Maximum benefit : cost ratio was found about 2.49 with double disc opener ZT drill under field condition, C2 in rice-wheat cropping system.
  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development and field evaluation of a small wheat thresher for hill region
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2006-06) Sethi, Dhananjaya; Gupta, O.P.
    India is the second largest wheat producer after China. Wheat is grown under diverse agro climatic conditions and occupies more than 25 million hectare area with average production of 70 million tonnes. As the major Rabi crop, it recorded a production of 74.05 million tonnes in 2004-05, which exceeds last year‟s production by 1.94 million tonnes or 2.8 % (India 2006). Timely threshing of crops is essential in hilly region. There is enormous scarcity of machinery and non availability of small size machinery makes the job difficult in hills. Farmers in hill region use conventional method like hand beating, animal feet trampling for threshing crops. Which is a time consuming and laborious process. So there is a crucial need of small size wheat thresher which can work efficiently. The small wheat thresher developed by Dubey (2004), both cylinder and blower were mounted on a common shaft for which a desired threshing and cleaning efficiency were achieved with a greater percentage of visible grain damage and collective losses. The quality of bhusa obtained from the thresher was also not in permissible limit that is why not accepted by local farmers. Considering the above points there is a crucial need of small and efficient wheat thresher with maximum threshing and cleaning efficiency along with minimum losses and visible grain damage. Keeping the above point in view a small power wheat thresher having separate shaft for cylinder and blower was designed and fabricated in the Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Pantnagar. The performance of the thresher was evaluated on two varieties of wheat crops UP-2823 and UP-2625. The results reveled that the threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, collective loss, and visible grain damage, germination percentage and maximum length of bhusa are with in the norms of BIS standard. The optimum threshing parameters for the variety UP-2823 i.e. threshing efficiency 99.88%, cleaning efficiency 99.29%, germination percentage 92%, visible grain damage 1.76%, blown grain 1.1%, spilled grain 0.75% and maximum length of bhusa 11 mm were observed at feed rate of 5 kg/min, 22.9 m/s cylinder speed and 1440 rpm blower speed in treatment T18 (F2C3B3). Where as the same threshing parameters for the variety UP-2625 are 99.38%, 99.1%, 90%, 1.43%, 1.31%, 1.38%, 13 mm were observed at feed rate of 5.4 kg/min, 22.9 m/s cylinder speed and 1440 rpm blower speed in treatment T27 (F3C3B3) and which are upto the acceptable limits of BIS standard. The optimum output capacity of the thresher was found to be 0.14 t/h and 0.147 t/h for the varieties UP-2823 and UP-2625 respectively in actual field condition. A combination of 102 mm motor pulley, 127 mm of cylinder pulley and 102 mm of blower pulley was recommended to operate the thresher in order to obtain above mentioned threshing parameters. The power consumption of thresher at optimum speed was found to be 1.2 kW-h.
  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on utilization of ethanol in small constant speed SI engines
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2006-06) Manoj Kumar; Bhattacharya, T.K.
    Apart from the problem of scarcity, the petro based fuels with their increased use have raised the level of pollutants in the atmosphere to such a large extent that combustion generated pollution has now become a matter of great concern. Through the reducing petroleum resources, increasing prices and pollution norms have necessitated the search for renewable alternate fuels. In alternative liquid fuels, alcohols are more popular and use of ethyl alcohol lowers overall emission and is derived from renewable biomass sources. Gasohol (10:90 of alcohol: gasoline) is a commercial fuel in over thirty-five countries including USA, Canada and France. Due to lower heating value of ethanol than petro fuels there is reduction in power output from engine but at the same time it is having higher octane number then gasoline. This problem can be addressed with the use of higher compression ratio engines. The studies were conducted to assess the performance test of four engines on kerosene and denatured ethanol of 2000, 1900, 1800 and 1700 proof. The fuel properties of selected fuels were studied and a long duration test was conducted on an engine coupled with an alternator on denatured ethanol of 1900 proof for 150 hours. Fuel consumption test of Honda make engines viz. GK300 model of 3600 rpm rated speed (CR 4.8:1), GK300 model of 1800 rpm rated speed (CR 4.8:1), G300 model (CR 6.5:1) and GK200 model (CR 4.5:1) were conducted. A long duration test of a Honda make GK300 model engine, coupled with an alternator was conducted for 150 hours to evaluate its performance on 1900 denatured ethanol in respect of fuel consumption, crankcase oil dilution and emission of CO, HC and NOx. The observed results of experiment indicated that the denatured ethanol of 2000, 1900, 1800 and 1700 proof were found to have similar power producing capabilities as kerosene. Fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency and bsfc were found higher on denatured ethanol poof than kerosene. The emission of HC was found less but NOx emission was higher on denatured ethanol proofs than the kerosene. Results indicate that higher the compression ratio better is the brake thermal efficiency and lesser brake brake specific fuel consumption. The long duration test indicated no significant deposition of foreign matter on carburettor component and deterioration in the crank case oil quality within the recommended change period of 100 hours. The operation of alternator on 1900 proof ethanol was found satisfactory however 1800 proof denatured ethanol is recommended for use in engines.