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Open Access
Assessment and optimization of energy requirement in major crops of Uttarakhand
(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 2022-12) Akanksha; Singh, T. P.
The energy use pattern for wheat, sugarcane and major crop cultivation in Tarai region and maize cultivation in hilly region of Uttarakhand have been studied.Survey was carried under AICRP on EAAI utilising the performa designed for the purpose and data were acquired from specific farmers. The selected farmers were divided into different category according to their land holding. All categories of farmer use different energy sources in different unit operations according to their farm power availability. The calculation of used energy in performing all unit operations were done for different categories farmers. A total of 23933.47 MJ/ha of energy was found to be used in the cultivation of wheat crops by all categories of farmers. Fertilizer application accounted for the largest portion of the total input energy used 12149.32 MJ/ha (50.76%). The second highest overall energy contributor was irrigation, which is 4029.77 MJ/ha (16.84%), sowing operation involves 2916.54 MJ/ha (12.19%) of the total input energy used followed by 2100.01 MJ/ha (08.77%) of tillage. Harvesting and threshing operation involves 1847.77 MJ/ha (07.72%) and plant protection share 890.07 MJ/ha (03.72%) in total input energy.Average crop yield obtained by large, medium, semi-medium, small and marginal category farmer was 5494.86, 5350.88, 5126.81, 5126.40 and 4800.69 kg/ha respectively using the input energy of 25248.00, 24600.86, 23858.33, 23832.27 and 23504.98 MJ/ha respectively.The energy ratio for large, medium, semi-medium, small and marginal category was found as 6.68, 6.67, 6.42, 6.48 and 6.64 respectively. In Tarai region of Uttarakhand, for all categories of farmer growing wheat cropthe energy ratio was obtained as 6.55 with energy productivity of 0.21 kg/MJ. The average farm power availability was found 2.68 kW/ha.The total energy used in the production of sugarcane crop including all unit processes was determined to be 169.644 GJ/ha. The sowing operation accounted for the largest portion of the total energy use 142.041 GJ/ha (83.73%) to cultivate sugarcane crop. It was observed that the sugarcane cultivation required highest seed energy because of high seed rate used by farmers in the region. Total input energy for sugarcane accounts fertilizer energy 21721.94 MJ/ha (12.80%), tillage energy 2872.19 MJ/ha (1.69%) followed by irrigation energy 1002.15 MJ/ha (0.59%).Medium category farmer used input energy of 173.683 GJ/ha and obtained output energy of 1127.913 GJ/ha. Similarly, total input energy used by semi-medium, small and marginal category farmers was 171.234, 166.356, 162.407 GJ/ha respectively. The output energy obtained by semi-medium, small and marginal category farmers against the used input energy was 1029.819, 916.994 and 821.913 GJ/ha respectively. The overall energy ratio, of all categories of farmers in Tarai region of Uttarakhand,wasfound as 5.74 with energy productivity was 0.36 kg/MJ.According to the study the average farm power availability for sugarcane crop cultivation in Uttarakhand's Tarai region is 2.48 kW/ha. Total of 2903.97 MJ/ha of input energy was used by the marginal farmers to cultivate maize crops in hilly region of Uttarakhand. Fertiliser contributed the most at 1346.55 MJ/ha (46.37%) and machinery contributed the least 22.26 MJ/ha (0.77%). The second largest energy input contributor for the cultivation of maize was seed, which contributed 844.25 MJ/ha (29.07%) of energy. The output of maize is influenced by animal energy to the tune of 452.68 MJ/ha (15.59%). The amount of energy needed to cultivate maize is 238.23 MJ/ha (8.23%) which comes from human as source of energy.Average maize crop yield obtained by marginal category farmer was 1174.39 kg/ha using input energy of 2903.37 MJ/ha. Output energy obtained by marginal category farmers is 38179.36 MJ/ha against the used input energy in maize crop cultivation. Energy ratio obtained was 13.14 which indicated that with the consumption of lower amount of energy the yield and output energy obtained was high. Farm poweravailability in hilly area was observed as 0.42 kW/ha which is quite low mainly due to use of animal power as source and also due to least or no intervention of improved implement/machinery for performing unit operations.
Open Access
Development of a silpaulin material tubular biogas plant and studies on defoaming characteristics of different defoamers for mitigation of foaming
(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 2022-10) Arya, Deepika; Arun Kumar
Biogas technology can sufficiently meet the energy needs of rural communities and also help to mitigate the negative impacts of careless biomass resource burning.Currently, the total biogas production in India is 2.07 billion m3/year. This is quite low as compared to its potential, which is estimated to be around 29–48 billion m3/year.There are several biogas plant designs that can produce both biogas along with fertilizer as a byproduct. Biogas production in mountainous areas is insufficient and it is expensive to build and install biogas plants.For the best performance of a biogas plant, its design, operation efficiency, and economic viability are crucial variables that can be altered to enhance small-scale residential biogas plant adaption in rural regions. Therefore, a small Tubular type biogas plant (0.5m3) was designed and installed to check the operation efficiency and economic feasibility and compared with the Prefabricated balloon type and the Pant RCC biogas plant. Different parameters affecting the biogas production such as Total Solids, Volatile Solids, pH and Total alkalinity were measured on the weekly basis and biogas produced and its pressure were measured daily. The study shows that the daily biogas production per cubic meter for Tubular type was equivalent to balloon type biogas plant during psychrophilic temperature conditions. However, the highest biogas production was recorded in the Pant RCC biogas plant during psychrophilic and mesophilic temperature conditions with maximum pressure throughout the year. The cost of installation of Tubular type biogas plant lowest as compared with Pant RCC and Balloon type biogas plant. The highest methane content was 61.21% for Pant RCC followed by 53.6 % for Tubular type, 51.78% for Balloon type and biogas plant. Thus,Tubular type flexible designs can be suggested for rural hilly areas. Foaming is one of the major problems that occasionally occur in biogas plants, affecting negatively the overall digestion process and resulting in adverse operational, economic and environmental impacts.The foam can be categorized as stable and unstable, of which stable foam defines the foaming potential. The foaming potential of Tubular type, Balloon type and Pant RCC was determined and found for both psychrophilic and mesophilic temperature conditions as the temperature is one of the factors causing foam. The highest stable and unstable foam ratio was found to be 0.14 and 0.28 for the Tubular type,0.18 and 0.25 for balloon type, and 0.26 and 0.28 for Pant RCC biogas plantduring psychrophilic temperature range. The highest stable and unstable foam ratio was found to be 0.19 and 0.51 for Tubular type, 0.26 and 0.59 for balloon type, and 0.39 and 1.20 for Pant RCC biogas plant during mesophilic temperature range. The maximum stable foam ratio was found in Pant RCC biogas plant which implied that Pant RCC biogas plant has a problematic foaming situation. After foaming problem was identified, a batch experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the foam-reduction efficiency and to investigate the influence on process performance of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate and urea in batch reactors. The four defoamers was tested for three different concentrations with three replications and were 0.1%v/v, 0.2%v/v and 0.5%v/v.The foam reduction of 20% was achieved with 0.1%v/v sodium bicarbonate, 40% with 0.1%v/v for sodium carbonate, 16% with 0.5%v/v calcium bicarbonate and 44% with 0.5%v/v urea with a maximum biogas production of 23 liters.Thus, urea was found to have best potential to be used as a defoamer which does not affect the biomethanation process negatively.
Open Access
Study of a Paddy residue management machine
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, District Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand. PIN - 263145, 2022-10) P. Sivasailaja; Pateriya, R.N.
Rice (Oryza sativa) is the major widespread crop grown in India. Rice straw is produced as a byproduct of paddy production during harvest. Paddy residue management is important in rice-wheat cropping system. Paddy residue handling in combine harvested fields for wheat sowing is carried out to a great degree by rigorous tillage operations. But due to the deficiency of economically practicable alternatives for paddy-straw utilization, a large portion of paddy residue is burnt on farm primarily to clear the field for sowing of the succeeding crop. So, a paddy residue management machine was developed to cut, chop and incorporate the paddy residues within the field in a single run. But the developed machine consumed more than 56 kW of power for its operation and weighs 1050 kg. So, this study was conducted to reduce the power consumption and weight of the machine. SolidWorks 2020 software was used for virtual designing and modelling three dimensional models, while SolidWorks motion simulation and Static simulation module, as an integral part of the SoildWorks software were used for Motion analysis and Finite Element Analysis. The power consumption and weight of paddy residue management machine were reduced for the same size were 39 kW and 875 kg. The cost of operation was calculated as 2863 Rs/ha. The Break-even point (BEP), Payback period and Benefit-Cost (B:C) ratio were 12.38 ha, 0.55 years and 1.75 respectively.
Open Access
Design modification of a portable cold storage
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2022-04) Saxena, Anshu; Pateriya, R.N.
A solar powered portable cold storage was modified and developed for the storage of fruits and vegetables to increase their shelf-life. It was generally designed and developed in order to reduce post-harvest losses and ensure better returns for small and marginal farmer. The developed solar powered cold-storage is cost effective, simple and energy efficient unit. The installation, operation and maintenance cost of the cold-storage were also less in comparison with the existing storage facilities. It comprised of a solar AC, solar panels, compressor, cold storage structure, water tank, portable trolley, honeycomb pads and sensors. The cold storage structure was made up of Nova pan which were mounted on aluminium frame with sliding doors, the dimension of cold store was (2.431.982.43 meter) with the capacity of around 1.5-2.0 tonnes. The cold storage was fitted over movable trolley which makes it portable. The water tank was made up of an MS sheet of 1.21×2.43 meter size. The cold-storage was integrated with temperature and humidity sensor operated by the raspberry pi for remote monitoring of data. It was tested for its performance during early winter season. The minimum and maximum drop in temperature ranged between 12.5 C and 15°C, the increase in relative humidity was observed between 85% to 95% inside the cold-storage in the month of November. It was observed that there was considerable effect on physiological loss in firmness of different vegetables kept outside the portable cold-storage. The freshness and shelf-life of vegetables was increased substantially after storage in the portable cold-storage. The total cost of designed 1.5-2.0 tonnes capacity cold storage was around Rs.1,53,500/- including installation charges.
Open Access
Design modification of a portable cold storage
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2022-04) Saxena, Anshu; Pateriya, R.N
A solar powered portable cold storage was modified and developed for the storage of fruits and vegetables to increase their shelf-life. It was generally designed and developed in order to reduce post-harvest losses and ensure better returns for small and marginal farmer. The developed solar powered cold-storage is cost effective, simple and energy efficient unit. The installation, operation and maintenance cost of the cold-storage were also less in comparison with the existing storage facilities. It comprised of a solar AC, solar panels, compressor, cold storage structure, water tank, portable trolley, honeycomb pads and sensors. The cold storage structure was made up of Nova pan which were mounted on aluminium frame with sliding doors, the dimension of cold store was (2.431.982.43 meter) with the capacity of around 1.5-2.0 tonnes. The cold storage was fitted over movable trolley which makes it portable. The water tank was made up of an MS sheet of 1.21×2.43 meter size. The cold-storage was integrated with temperature and humidity sensor operated by the raspberry pi for remote monitoring of data. It was tested for its performance during early winter season. The minimum and maximum drop in temperature ranged between 12.5 C and 15°C, the increase in relative humidity was observed between 85% to 95% inside the cold-storage in the month of November. It was observed that there was considerable effect on physiological loss in firmness of different vegetables kept outside the portable cold-storage. The freshness and shelf-life of vegetables was increased substantially after storage in the portable cold-storage. The total cost of designed 1.5-2.0 tonnes capacity cold storage was around Rs.1,53,500/- including installation charges.
Open Access
Studies on performance evaluation of battery-cum-manually operated boom sprayer under lab and field condition
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-11) Ayush; Arun Kumar
Plant protection activities are most important practices during crop production. The application of fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides is one of the most recurrent and significant tasks in agriculture. Conventional agricultural spraying techniques have made the inconsistency between economic growth and environmental protection in agricultural production. For pesticide application,the parameters like area of the plant canopy, area of a plant leaf, height of the crop, and volume of plants related to plant protection product applications are very important for obtaining better results.Common plant protection equipments include Knapsack sprayers (manual and power operated), foot sprayer, tractor mounted sprayer in India. Most of the sprayers spray chemical from the top of the plant which causes improper spray distribution in case of crops with dense or medium canopy. The pest and insets present inside the canopy and under the leaves are not affected by this spray which leads to infestation and damage even after spraying. Several problems due to use of conventional backpack sprayers arise. Fatigue is produced to the operator due to carry of heavyweight backpack sprayer for a long time. For reducing the above problem, it was felt to develop and modify low cost battery cum manually operated boom sprayer. It was suitable for small land holding farmers and had low cost of operation. The performance of the modified sprayer was evaluated in both laboratory and field condition to ensure that the objectives are fulfilled. Under laboratory conditions, sprayer was tested in both manual and battery mode of operation. The independent parameters for lab test were nozzle type (flat fan), stroke length (full and medium), speed of operation (1, 1.5 and 2 km/h), nozzle height (300 mm), and level of tank (1/4th ,1/2th, 3/4th and full). The boom sprayer performance evaluation was evaluated in the Dept. of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering on the concrete surface and discharge rate as well as pressure was measured. The modified boom sprayer should be operated at 1 to 1.5 km/h speed of travel at any selected level of tank at full stroke length (i.e. 45 mm) in manual mode operation. The machine was tested in the field on turmeric crop at three different speeds (1, 1.5 and 2 km/h). The water sensitive paper were tagged at the different positions of the plant canopy and to check their percentage coverage, volume median diameter, image area, deposits/cm2 and deposition μL/cm2, Deposit scan software is used. This software is free and open source by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) for the spot evaluation of spray quality. It was found that, in field condition, the developed sprayer should be operated at 1.5 km/h speed of travel and with the help of these flat fan nozzles we could get the desired image area, deposits/cm2, and deposition for the different position of plant canopy as well as sufficient to eradicate pests and diseases.
Open Access
Design and development of tractor operated onion digger with cutter bar topping unit
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2020-07) Naik, Mude Arjun; Pateriya, R.N.
A tractor drawn onion digger with cutter bar topping unit which unites the benefits of topping and digging together, along with soil separation unit was designed and developed for onion crop. It comprised of a topping unit, digging unit, soil separation unit, power transmission unit, windrowing unit, main frame, and three point hitch. A standard reciprocating type cutter bar with a total cutting width of 750 mm was used as a topping unit. An inverted V- shaped blade of 650 mm was used as digging unit which was fixed to the base plate with nuts and bolts. For the conveyor a rectangular sieve with the overall dimensions of 700 × 550 mm was used for separating the onion from the soil. It was supported by two passive rollers made up of 50.8 mm diameter pipe and 550 mm length on which the canvas endless belt of 50 mm thickness was rotating over both the ends of the rollers. 20 × 55 mm MS flats are bolted perpendicular on the belt with a span of 250 mm gap between two successive flats which helps to pass the soil through the gap between the flats. A power transmission unit consisted of gear box, V- belts, shafts, and pulleys. Pulleys were used to transmit the power and maintain the speed ratio of 3:1 and 2.4:1 for conveying and topping unit respectively. The total weight of the onion digger with topper was 135 kg. The maximum stress, strain and deflection on digging unit in finite element analysis (FEA) using solid works software was found as 2.975×106 N m-2, 3.172×10-2 mm, 9.729×10-6 respectively. The physical and agronomical properties as found equatorial, polar diameter, shape index, bulk density, plant height and number of tillers per plant was measured and found to be 44.75 mm, 43.34 mm, 1.01, 561 kg m-3, 28.76 mm, 5 number respectively. Field evaluation of machine was conducted to optimize the independent parameters such as moisture content (9.5, 11.65, and 13.0%) (dry basis), rake angle (10,15, 20°) and speed of operation (2.5,3.25,4.0 km h-1) by using central composite design (CCD) in response surface methodology (RSM). The optimum conditions for maximum digging efficiency (93.76%), minimum damage percentage (6.44%) and topping efficiency (78.46%) were found at 11.39% (dry basis) moisture content, 15.12° rake angle and 3.11 km h-1 speed of operations respectively. For optimum values of independent parameters the theoretical field capacity, actual field capacity and field efficiencies were calculated 0.20 ha h-1, 0.17 ha ha-1, and 85% respectively. 4.94 hours were required to cover one hectare land using tractor operated onion digger with cutter bar topping unit that cost about rupees 2,284.88/- per ha which is 59.37 % less as compared with manual digging (Rs. 5,625/- per ha).
Open Access
Study on wear characteristics of cultivator reversible shovels and its FEM analysis
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2020-11) Reddy, Puchala Harsha Vardhan; Singh, R.P.
Cultivator is one of the most used agricultural implement by Indian farmers, they faces problem of wear in its working parts. The reversible shovels are mostly used cultivator shares and they are manufactured by local manufacturers without any standard in dimensions and material as well, that affects the operational life of the shovel. To know the wear characteristics of the commercially available reversible shovels, three different make shovels were selected and a study was conducted in the fields of HRC, Pantnagar by mounting them on a nine tyne spring cultivator. The study was carried out for 100 h and the wear was analyzed both gravimetric and dimensional for each time intervals of 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 h of operation. The study reveals that the shovel S3 shows low gravimetric wear followed by S1 and high for S2. The dimensional wear was high for S3 followed by S1 and low for S2 because S2 was thicker than other two shovels. In India, there are only few registered cultivator manufacturers and most of the cultivators are manufactured by local artisans which encounter problems of failure under different load conditions. The stress analysis of locally manufactured cultivator tyne was analyzed by FEM (static simulation) using SolidWorks 2016 parametric design software. The analysis shows that the locally manufactured tynes had minimum factor of safety of 18. In general, machine design was carried out with minimum factor of safety as 2, so the dimensions of the tyne should be reduced in order to save the material and energy related to it that helps in cost reduction of cultivator. The maximum displacement (deflection) was observed at tip of the shovel, this indicates that the tip of shovel is subjected for wear first and same was revealed from field studies.
Open Access
Development of a machine for residue management of combine harvested paddy field
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2020-02) Ramulu, Chelpuri; Pateriya, R.N.
Burning of paddy residue is a critical issue that leads to inimical affect on environment. Management of crop residues in conservation agriculture is an essential for long-term sustainability of Agriculture. The paddy residue management includes straw cutting, chopping and their incorporation with soil. Residue incorporation was the most effective practice for enhance both agricultural productivity and sustainability by improving the soil health and fertility. As per the available literature that there is no such appropriate machine which can cut, chop and incorporate of paddy residue in a single pass. The present developed residue management machine can perform chopping of paddy residues and mix with the soil of combine harvested paddy field. This developed machine consists of chopping unit, incorporation unit, adjustable frame, pulleys and belts. The power is transmitted to the chopping unit and incorporation unit by tractor (55.95kW) PTO with the help of gear box, belt, pulley and gear arrangement. The fuel consumption, field capacity and field efficiency of residue management machine were observed 12.5-14.0 l/h, 0.43-0.64 ha/h and 60.46 % respectively. The four independent parameters selected for study were rotary speed (R1 =900 & R2 = 1100 rpm), forward speed (F1 = 2.1 & F2= 3.0 kmph), horizontal adjustment (H1 = 550 & H2= 650 mm) and vertical adjustment (V1 = 100 &V2= 200 mm) between straw chopper shaft and rotavator shaft and its effect was found on incorporation efficiency, shredding efficiency and trash size reduction of chopped paddy residues. The incorporation of residue and shredding efficiency were found highest at V1H2F1R2 (95.31%) and V1H2F1R2 (61.92 %) arrangements respectively. The trash reduction of chopped paddy residue was recorded maximum at V1H2F2R2 (40.58%) arrangement. Cost economics of developed residue management machine was compared with existing technologies adopted by farmers i.e. straw chopper + 2 rotavator practice and 6 harrowing + rotavator + planker practice. The cost of operation of developed residue management machine was observed 4272.8 Rs.ha-1 lower than existing technologies. The breakeven point (BEP), payback period and benefit cost (B:C) ratio of the developed residue management machine were 45 ha, 0.7 years and 1.17 respectively. Therefore, it is concluded that the developed residue management machine can be recommended to the farmers for paddy residue management of combine harvested paddy field.

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