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Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur

The Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) was established on 12th June 1964 at Hyderabad. The University was formally inaugurated on 20th March 1965 by Late Shri. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India. Another significant milestone was the inauguration of the building programme of the university by Late Smt. Indira Gandhi,the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India on 23rd June 1966. The University was renamed as Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University on 7th November 1996 in honour and memory of an outstanding parliamentarian Acharya Nayukulu Gogineni Ranga, who rendered remarkable selfless service for the cause of farmers and is regarded as an outstanding educationist, kisan leader and freedom fighter. HISTORICAL MILESTONE Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) was established under the name of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) on the 12th of June 1964 through the APAU Act 1963. Later, it was renamed as Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University on the 7th of November, 1996 in honour and memory of the noted Parliamentarian and Kisan Leader, Acharya N. G. Ranga. At the verge of completion of Golden Jubilee Year of the ANGRAU, it has given birth to a new State Agricultural University namely Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University with the bifurcation of the state of Andhra Pradesh as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014. The ANGRAU at LAM, Guntur is serving the students and the farmers of 13 districts of new State of Andhra Pradesh with renewed interest and dedication. Genesis of ANGRAU in service of the farmers 1926: The Royal Commission emphasized the need for a strong research base for agricultural development in the country... 1949: The Radhakrishnan Commission (1949) on University Education led to the establishment of Rural Universities for the overall development of agriculture and rural life in the country... 1955: First Joint Indo-American Team studied the status and future needs of agricultural education in the country... 1960: Second Joint Indo-American Team (1960) headed by Dr. M. S. Randhawa, the then Vice-President of Indian Council of Agricultural Research recommended specifically the establishment of Farm Universities and spelt out the basic objectives of these Universities as Institutional Autonomy, inclusion of Agriculture, Veterinary / Animal Husbandry and Home Science, Integration of Teaching, Research and Extension... 1963: The Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) Act enacted... June 12th 1964: Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) was established at Hyderabad with Shri. O. Pulla Reddi, I.C.S. (Retired) was the first founder Vice-Chancellor of the University... June 1964: Re-affilitation of Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, Hyderabad (estt. in 1961, affiliated to Osmania University), Agricultural College, Bapatla (estt. in 1945, affiliated to Andhra University), Sri Venkateswara Agricultural College, Tirupati and Andhra Veterinary College, Tirupati (estt. in 1961, affiliated to Sri Venkateswara University)... 20th March 1965: Formal inauguration of APAU by Late Shri. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India... 1964-66: The report of the Second National Education Commission headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari, Chairman of the University Grants Commission stressed the need for establishing at least one Agricultural University in each Indian State... 23, June 1966: Inauguration of the Administrative building of the university by Late Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India... July, 1966: Transfer of 41 Agricultural Research Stations, functioning under the Department of Agriculture... May, 1967: Transfer of Four Research Stations of the Animal Husbandry Department... 7th November 1996: Renaming of University as Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University in honour and memory of an outstanding parliamentarian Acharya Nayukulu Gogineni Ranga... 15th July 2005: Establishment of Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) bifurcating ANGRAU by Act 18 of 2005... 26th June 2007: Establishment of Andhra Pradesh Horticultural University (APHU) bifurcating ANGRAU by the Act 30 of 2007... 2nd June 2014 As per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014, ANGRAU is now... serving the students and the farmers of 13 districts of new State of Andhra Pradesh with renewed interest and dedication...

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2016 - 201814
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Subject: Agricultural Engineering × End date: 2019 × Start date: 2016 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Tech. ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT OF MANUAL OPERATED WOMEN FRIENDLY PADDY TRANSPLANTER
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) KARTHIK, GOTTIMUKULA; SRINIVAS, I
    Paddy is the staple food for more than 60% of the world’s population. India has largest area under paddy cultivation of about 43.38 million hectare with the total production of about 104.30 million tonne (Statistical Year Book India, 2017). Transplanting is the largely practiced method of establishment of paddy in Indian wetland conditions, and it is mostly done manually. This method is a tedious and time consuming operation, requires about 250-300 man-h ha-1 contributing 25% of the total labour required for cultivation (Singh et al., 1985). Shortage of labour, due to rapid urbanisation, is the main factor leading transplanting to mechanisation. Self propelled paddy transplanters are available in market at higher costs which cannot be afforded by small and marginal farmers, who comprises a major share in Indian agriculture. Therefore, a low cost manual operated two-row paddy transplanter was developed and evaluated in ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad. The transplanter was developed with row spacing of 250 mm. Four bar mechanism was adopted for operating fingers which are powered by ground wheel through chain and sprocket. The fabrication cost of transplanter was Rs. 4000 weighing around 15 kg which can be easily pulled by a women labour. Root washed seedlings of 21 DAS were used for testing the performance of the mechanism (Kavitkar et al., 2017). The time interval between the last puddling and transplanting was 24 hours in 2-4 cm of standing water (RNAM, 1983). Performance evaluation of transplanter was done at different average forward speeds of 0.75 km h-1, 1.00 km h-1 and 1.25 km h-1 and the results are analysed statistically with Randomised Block Design. Ergo-economical comparison of manual operated paddy transplanter with conventional transplanting was also done. Optimisation of forward speed was done considering transplanting, machine, ergonomic and operating cost parameters. The mean hill spacing in a row at forward speeds of 0.75 km h-1, 1.00 km h-1 and 1.25 km h-1 was 25.60 cm, 25.07 cm and 24.40 cm with 2-3 seedlings per hill at transplanting depth of 3.53 cm, 4.57 cm and 5.35 cm respectively. Total defective hills at different forward speeds of 0.75 km h-1, 1.00 km h-1 and 1.25 km h-1 were 10.06%, 8.04% and 11.89% respectively with transplanting efficiencies of 89.94%, 91.96% and Name of the author : GOTTIMUKULA KARTHIK Title of the thesis : “DEVELOPMENT OF MANUAL OPERATED WOMEN FRIENDLY PADDY TRANSPLANTER” Degree to which it is submitted : Master of Technology Faculty : Agricultural Engineering & Technology Major field of study : FARM MACHINERY AND POWER ENGINEERING Major advisor : Dr. I. SRINIVAS University : Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University Year of submission : 2018 x 88.11%. Effective field capacity at forward speeds of 0.75 km h-1, 1.00 km h-1 and 1.25 km h-1 was recorded as 0.249 ha day-1, 0.313 ha day-1 and 0.373 ha day-1 with field efficiencies of 82.92%, 78.24% and 74.53% respectively. Pulling force for operating transplanter was observed to be 93.15 N at forward speed of 1.25 km h-1 followed by 75.50 N at 1.00 km h-1 and 65.70 N at 0.75 km h-1. Overall discomfort rating (ODR) and total body part discomfort score (BPDS) at forward speeds of 0.75 km h-1, 1.00 km h-1, 1.25 km h-1 of manual operated paddy transplanter and conventional transplanting was 4.50, 5.33, 7.17 and 7.33 and 38.17, 46.83, 61.67 and 74.5 respectively. Maximum body pain was observed by subjects in upper back followed by upper arm, shoulder, waist, thighs and legs in mechanical paddy transplanter. In manual transplanting maximum pain was observed by subjects in waist and upper arm followed by lower back, upper back, shoulder, thighs and legs. The operating costs were Rs. 5530 ha-1, Rs. 4400 ha-1 and Rs. 3692 ha-1 at 0.75 km h-1, 1.00 km h-1 and 1.25 km h-1 forward speeds respectively. The savings in cost of operation of paddy transplanter was found more than 21% compared to conventional transplanting which costs Rs.7000 ha-1. The mean forward speed of 1.00 km h-1 of manual operated paddy transplanter was found optimum as it gave desired row spacing of 25 cm, with transplanting efficiency and effective field capacity of 91.96% and 0.313 ha day-1 respectively, at an operational cost of Rs. 4400 ha-1. The operation of the machine at this forward speed requires low pulling force of 65.7 N, with the mean overall discomfort rating and total body discomfort ratings were 5.33 and 46.83 respectively. Keywords: Mechanical transplanting, manual operated, paddy transplanter, postural discomfort, cost economics.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF LOW HP TRACTOR OPERATED SPRAYER WITH WIPER MECHANISM
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) UDAYBHASKAR, ANAGANI; RAMIREDDY, K. V. S.
    World crop yields are reducing every year between 20%-40% due to the damage wrought by plant pests and diseases. About 30%-35% of the annual crop yields in India get wasted because of pest. India has a large and diverse agricultural sector which requires quite effective methods for spraying pesticides at a desired rate, in minimal time for reducing yield losses. Mechanization of agriculture plays a major role in timely and economic operations to produce high yield with low inputs. Pesticides are critical inputs for crop production worldwide and are expected to continue to play a major role for protect most crops from insect-pests and disease. In conventional method of spraying, one person covers less area of land (about 0.4 ha day-1). Mechanization of plant protection equipment needs for timely application of pesticides to produce good yield. In India, marginal and small land holdings contribute 67.10% and 17.91% for agriculture. In marginal and small holdings, low horse power tractors ranging 18-22 hp are getting popular in India than the large tractors. Development of compactable equipment to low horse power tractors was needed to meet the demand of farm operations. The present study was conducted on the development and performance evaluation of low hp tractor operated sprayer with wiper system. Wiper system in the sprayer, specilitates automatic back and forth moment of spray guns without need of labour. Before developing a sprayer, all the required components were drawn and assembled in Creo 3.0 software for fabrication accuracy. Performance parameters evaluated in laboratory conditions and in field groundnut crop was chosen to test the developed wiper sprayer. Cost economics of developed sprayer were also determined. Results obtained for developed sprayer was compared with boom sprayer. ImageJ software was used for image analysis to find droplet size, density and percentage of area covered on crop. During evaluation, it was observed that the optimum combination of wiper sprayer obtained at 25° of oscillating angle of spray gun from its center, 2000 kPa of operating pressure, 0.9 m height of spray from ground and gap between nozzles 3 m with the maximum swath width of 9.45 m in static position of sprayer. Uniform coefficient of 89.81% was observed at static position of sprayer. Minimum droplet VMD range of developed sprayer varied from 223 to 358 μm were observed over boom sprayer as 313 to 480 μm. Maximum droplet density of developed sprayer varied from 87 to 151 droplets cm-2 was observed over boom sprayer of 16 to 95 droplet cm-2. Percentage of area covered on crop varied from 12.34% to 29.83% cm-2 over boom sprayer of 11.4% to 34.78%. Lower applications rates of developed sprayer varied from 181 to 423 L ha-1 over boom sprayer of 617.14 to 1440 L ha-1. Higher effective field capacity of developed sprayer varied from 0.9072 to 2.0618 ha h-1 over boom sprayer of 0.3665 to 0.835 ha h-1. Low operation cost of developed sprayer varied from 150 to 310.2 Rs ha-1 over boom sprayer of 360 to 746 Rs ha-1 as change in operating speed from 1.5 to 3.5 km h-1. Saving of cost (%) over boom sprayer found that 58.43%, 58.35% and 58.33%, whereas the saving of time 59.7%, 59.88% and 59.66% over boom sprayer at forward speeds of 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 km h-1, respectively. Saving of labour cost (%) over conventional method found as 50.37%, 68.4% and 76%, whereas the saving of time 94.5, 96.64 and 97.57% over conventional method at forward speeds of 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 km h-1, respectively. Developed wiper sprayer given better results with saving of operating cost over boom sprayer 58.43% at 1.5 km h-1. Keywords: Wiper system; VMD; Image analysis; cost economics
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    STUDIES ON HYDRAULIC PERFORMANCE OF RAINGUN AND ITS EVALUATION
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) VAMSI, KAGITHA; RAMANA, M. V.
    Water has a key role to play in the progressive agriculture and economic development of the country. Due to the food demands of constantly growing population at the rate of 1.95 % annually, the demand of water for agriculture is increasing. However, availability of water for agriculture sector is reducing due to stiff competition from other sectors such as industries, recreation and domestic water supply. Thus, tremendous amount of pressure lies on agriculture sector to reduce its share of water and at the same time to enhance total production by enhancing the water use efficiency. Pressurized irrigation systems such as drip and sprinkler have been proved to be very efficient and useful in water scarce and undulated area. Amongst sprinkler irrigation systems, rain gun can be used most effectively for irrigating larger fields in short period and with minimum labour requirement. As the rain gun sprinkler system is recently adopted in India, adequate information is not available on hydraulic characteristics. The relationships viz., pressure-radius of throw, pressure-discharge and pressure-uniformity coefficient were developed for standalone rain gun at different riser heights. The linear, logarithmic, power and exponential types of equations were fitted for these relationships. The best relationships were selected based on the value of regression coefficient. Characteristic curves were drawn for the raingun based on hydraulic performance. This is beneficial to farmers for selection of raingun based on type of nozzle size and riser height etc. Uniformity coefficient increases with operating pressure and maximum uniformity coefficient was observed in 8mm nozzle i.e. 68 % at 3.5 kg/cm2 and 1.5 m riser height among the tested nozzles. Uniformity coefficient decreases with the increase in riser height for the tested pressures. Uniformity coefficient increases with decrease in the nozzle size for the tested pressures. xvi Mobile rain gun system attached to the tractor is developed to supply the irrigation to the field where the electricity is not available to pump the water. It is evaluated to calculate the fuel consumption, discharge, pressure developed and maximum radius of throw by the system with 24 hp mini tractor and 38 hp tractors. The evaluation of mobile rain gun system attached to the tractor results that fuel consumption is 3l/h for mini tractor and 4.2 l/h for 38 hp tractor and discharge is 16 lps for mini tractor and 21 lps for 38 hp tractor. Cost of operation for irrigating with raingun per hectare with 24 hp mini tractor is Rs 1388/- and with 38 hp tractor is Rs 1237/- The performance of rain gun irrigation system is similar to the sprinkler irrigation system except following parameters. The uniformity coefficient of the rain gun system is 64 % and the sprinkler system is 84 %. Pod yield for the raingun irrigation system is 3100 kg/ha and sprinkler system is 3340kg/ha. The water use efficiency of raingun system is 21.14 kg/ha-mm and sprinkler system is 22.79 kg/ha-mm. The results revealed that the radius of throw of rain gun increases with operating pressure and riser height. This facilitates the scope for deciding the operating pressure to obtain the desired precipitation rate according to the soil type. However the nature of variation in radius of throw with operating pressure and riser height were different for different nozzles of rain gun. Similarly the discharge and uniformity coefficient of rain gun was found to increase with operating pressure and riser height. Key words: Rain gun, pressure, radius of throw, discharge, uniformity coefficient, riser height, mobile rain gun.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    ASSESSMENT OF HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL DROUGHT EFFECTS ON GROUNDWATER RESOURCES IN ANANTAPURAMU DISTRICT
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) UMA BAI, D; SAROJINI DEVI, B
    Drought is a disastrous natural phenomenon that has significant impact on social, economical, agricultural and environmental spheres. Drought is one of the world’s costliest natural disasters, causing an average 400-500 billion rupees in global damages annually and affecting more people than any other form of natural catastrophe. India is the seventh largest and second most populous country in the world. Its area is 2.2 per cent of the total world geographical area and about 16 per cent of the entire human race resides in its fold. The present study was motivated by the fact that no such study related to ground water resources was reported in Andhra Pradesh in general and Rayalaseema districts in particular Anantapuramu district prone to experience chronic drought conditions regularly. The present Post Graduate Research entitled “Assessment of hydro-meteorological drought effects on groundwater resources in Anantapuramu district” is proposed to i) to analyze the rainfall and groundwater levels data of the study area. ii) to calculate the drought indices such as Deciles, SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index), GRI (Groundwater Resource Index) SDI (Stream flow drought index) and SRI (Standardized Runoff Index) for the study area and iii) to suggest suitable drought mitigation measures for the study area. Details of meteorological parameters were collected from the chief planning department and analyzed, hydrological parameters which were analyzed from the data collected from Ground water Department, Anantapuramu. The total geographical area of the Anantapuramu district is 19,197sq.kms.There was a wide variation in rainfall in Anantapuramu district both spatially and temporally. The weighted mean rainfall (1988-2017) in Anantapuramu district is 542.2 mm. The highest rainfall was recorded during the year 1996 (793.01mm) followed by the year 2006 (782.96 mm).The lowest rainfall was recorded during the year 2016 (334.4 mm) followed by the year 2003 (370.71 mm) indicating the drought severity in the district. The water table level (2001-2017) in the study area fluctuated between 14.73-19.77 m. The groundwater level was found to be deepest during the months of August and September (19.77 and 19.53 m) respectively, and the water table level was shallowest during the months of December and January (14.73 and 14.83 m) respectively. Based on the research work carried out, the major conclusions drawn are Deciles were computed for the long historical rainfall data of 30 years over Anantapuramu district and historical drought events were identified which fall under the deciles 1-2 and 3-4. It is evident from the results that there were 12 drought events (1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2011, 2014 and 2016) in the period 1988-2017. The analysis of SPI-1 month showed that severe drought occurred in two mandals, moderate drought occurred in 15 mandals and 46 mild droughts. The analysis of SPI-6 month showed that 27 mandals had extreme drought conditions, 33 mandals had severe drought conditions and 3 mandals had moderate drought conditions. The analysis of SPI-12 month showed that 37 extreme, 20 severe, 4 moderate drought conditions in Anantapuramu district. The analysis of GRI-1 showed that 17 mandals had extreme groundwater drought situations, 18 mandals had severe water scarcity, 10 mandals had moderate and 2 mandals had mild groundwater drought. The analysis of GRI-6 showed that 25 mandals had extreme groundwater drought, 23 mandals had severe groundwater drought, 9 mandals had moderate groundwater drought problem. The analysis of GRI- 12 month showed that 15 mandals had extreme groundwater drought situations, 18 mandals had severe groundwater drought situations, 12 mandals had moderate groundwater drought, 2 mandals had mild groundwater drought. The variation of Standardized runoff index values for the period 1988-2017. High magnitude of drought was observed in the year 2005 with Standardized runoff index value -2.12. During the drought years Standardized runoff index varies from - 2.12 in the year 2005 to -0.32 in the year 1997. Most of the year’s fall in the range of mild drought. The drought characteristics based on the SPI-12-month, which indicates long-term drought (particularly for the groundwater scenario in the region). It is interesting to note that the number of drought events has decreased substantially, but the duration and severity have increased. Drought impacts can be minimised through developing suitable drought mitigation strategies. Mitigation actions can be taken before or at the beginning of drought. Therefore, early warning systems need to be developed for the region based on the real-time monitoring of indicators based on rainfall, soil moisture, surface water, and groundwater, so as to make the region drought-proof and improve the sustainability of agriculture in Anantapuramu district.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    IRRIGATION WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT OF COMMAND AREA OF BAPATLA CHANNEL
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) SAHITHYA, K; RAVI BABU, G
    Irrigation in India is mainly dependent on various sources, including the availability of canal water and ground water. In India, most of the prominent canal command areas suffer from either excessive or inadequate water supply resulting in wide gap between irrigation demand and supply. Hence it is necessary to evaluate the conjunctive use of irrigation water resources management. The computer software provides demand-based water release strategies for reducing the gap between canal supplies and demands. Bapatla channel is selected as study area for management of irrigation water resources (canal water, groundwater and drain water) available in the command area. The command area of Bapatla channel is 6548.27 ha. Command area map was generated using Arc GIS. The total water demand (TWD) of major crops grown in command area was calculated for 5 years (2012-13 to 2016-17) in two seasons. Similarly total water supply (TWS) (i.e. sum of canal water, groundwater and drain water supply) was calculated for the study period and compared TWD and TWS. The computer software was developed to give quick information about canal, drain and ground water supply and total water demand in the command area. The study area received 62.23 per cent of annual rainfall during South West monsoon season and 28.80 per cent in North East monsoon season and 6.64 and 2.32 per cent during summer and winter seasons. The daily discharge of Bapatla channel has never crossed the design discharge (7.50 Cumec) during study period. TWD of Bapatla channel command for two seasons (kharif and rabi) of crops paddy and maize was found to be 6500.04 ha-m in the year 2012-13. Similarly for 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 years TWD was found to be 6325.18, 6521.42, 3102.40 and 5376.19 ha-m respectively. The performance indicators of the delivery system present a poor performance in terms of adequacy and dependability. Irrigation efficiency of Bapatla channel for the study period were 50.55%, 62.52%, 66.06%, 12.84% and 47.54% for the years 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 respectively Irrigation efficiency (IE) for Bapatla channel is high (66.06 per cent) in the year 2014-15 and lowest (12.84 per cent) in the year 2015-16, this may be due to lack of water availability. Water use efficiency (WUE) was highest (4.19 kg/ha-mm) for the rabi paddy in the year 2014-15 because of more paddy crop yield and lowest WUE (1.94 kg/ha-mm) was observed in the year 2013-14, maize crop during rabi season due to heavy rains damaged the crop at maturing stage and less crop yield. Canal water supply to field (CWSF) in the Bapatla channel command area for the study period were 1194.46 ha-m, 2504.28 ha-m, 3462.81 ha-m, 85.98 ha-m and 1194.46 ha-m respectively. Similarly groundwater use (GWU) for the study period from 2012-13 to 2016-17 were 1300.32 ha-m, 1475.86 ha-m, 1105.92 ha-m, 1475.86 ha-m and 1713.60 ha-m respectively. And drain water use by the all lift irrigation systems in the command area for the study period from 2012-13 to 2016-17 for each year was about 1163.00 ha-m. TWS in the command area for five years were 3657.58 ha-m, 5142.94 ha-m, 5731.53 ha-m, 2724.64 ha-m and 4229.04 ha-m for the years 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 respectively. Total water demand is more than the total water supply in the study period during two crop seasons. Total water demand is more in the year 2014-15 of about 65.21 MCM and total water supply of about 57.32 MCM. Total water demand is less in the year 2015-16 (31.02 MCM) and total water supply is about 27.25 MCM. In the command area, on an average; it was observed that the canal water supply to the field was very less from 33rd week to 43rd week. So, there is need of ground water use during this period. During rabi season, canal water supply was very less or nil. Therefore, application of ground water is required at the middle end and drain water to the tail end of the command area for maximizing the crop yield. IWRMMOD (Irrigation Water Resources Management Model) was developed in the form of a computer program using PHP (Personal Home Page), which was simply mixed with HTML codes. In the IWRMMOD, seven forms were developed in the input data, i.e. crop, climate, canal water supply, canal hydraulics, special needs including efficiencies, groundwater supply and drain water use. Eight forms were involved in evaluation module namely Consumptive use, ET0 (Reference evapotranspiration), ER (Effective rainfall), Seepage loss, CWSF, GIR (Gross irrigation requirement), TWD, GWU, and also three output module forms like WUE, IE and TWS were developed. IWRMMOD was provided mainly demand-based daily water releases for reducing the gap between canal supplies and demands and to help irrigation engineers, agronomists and agro-meteorologists in planning, operation and management of irrigation systems efficiently.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTRAY VACUUM SEEDER FOR CROP NURSERY
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) VAISHNAVI, DASARI; CAROLIN RATHINAKUMARI, A
    Production of good quality seedlings is very much essential for getting high yield and quality crop. Today, direct seeding into plug trays with 50 to 400 cells is the preferred method. Vegetable seeds are small in volume, light in weight and the punching of pricking holes or dibbling operation and sowing in seedling trays are very tedious and repetitive task. Engineering properties of the seeds like linear dimensions, one thousand seed weight, bulk density and terminal velocity influence the performance of seed singulation mechanism in terms of pickup, singulation and drop of seeds. Hence these properties were determined to design two important components viz., seed tray and seed pickup systems of protray vacuum seeder. Among the seeds used in vegetable nursery the linear dimensions (length, width and thickness), one thousand seed weight and bulk density of vegetable seeds are found for capsicum 4.28±0.03, 3.89±0.02, 0.54±0.01 mm, 8.2±0.07 g, 643.61±7.73 kg m-3 respectively. By considering these properties, seed picking units of existing vacuum seeder was modified with hypodermic needles of inner diameter 0.84, 0.69, 0.60 and 0.51 mm and performance study was conducted at a different suction pressure levels viz., 60, 80, 100 and 120 mm of Hg for chilli, brinjal, tomato, capsicum, cabbage, knol-khol and marigold to optimize design and operational Parameters. It was observed that nozzle orifice size of 0.51 mm at 80 and 60 mm of Hg suction pressure had highest seed singles pickup (%) for all the seeds. A pipe type vacuum seeder was then designed, developed and experiments were conducted to standardise the location of vacuum inlet viz., inlet at one corner, inlets at diagonal ends, inlet at center on one side and inlets at center on both ends for highest seed pickup efficiency. The experiments were conducted for one selected flat shape seed and for one round shape seed. Four different vacuum inlet locations were made to select best location of inlet such that it gives maximum percent of singles. Performance was evaluated with optimized parameters 0.69, 0.60 and 0.51 mm at single pressure (80 mm of Hg) for flat seed (chilli seed) and round seed (knol-khol). Highest per cent of singles were observed with 0.51 mm orifice size. It was observed that vacuum inlet provided at one corner of pipe had maximum percent of singles as 91.33%, doubles, triples and missings as 2.67% and 96.67% pickup for knol-khol seed. It was also observed that per cent singles, per cent doubles, per cent triples, per cent missings and per cent pickup were 74, 17.33, 5.33 and 6.67 % for chilli seeds respectively. The capacity of protray vacuum seeder was 100 protrays per hour. Key words: Vegetable nursery, vegetable seeds, protray seeder, nursery mechanization.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    STANDARDISATION OF OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS OF FOGGER NOZZLES FOR UNIFORM SPRAY DISTRIBUTION AND REDUCED DRIFT
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) SUMA, BATTEPATI; Veeraprasad, G
    Pesticide application plays an important role in pest management. Accurate pesticide application from sprayers is essential in modern farming practice. According to the World Health Organization (2001) estimates that there are 3 million cases of pesticide poison in each year and up to 220,000 deaths, primarily in developing countries. Some of the benefits of crop spraying with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sprayers include a significant reduction in application cost by utilizing an UAV aircraft and improvement in coverage. Selection of nozzle that develops the desired spray pattern under Ultra low volume (ULV) spraying is very important. The common fogger nozzles available in the market namely four head fogger, spinning disc and single head fogger nozzle have to check their suitability for ULV spraying. The operation parameters of fogger nozzles for better spray distribution have to standardise before operating with ULV sprayers. The present study was conducted on the “Standardisation of operational parameters of fogger nozzles for uniform spray distribution and reduced drift” by testing different fogger nozzles namely, single head, four head and spinning disc nozzle on the spray patternator. The nozzles were evaluated with different operational parameters, such as operating pressure(1,1.5 and 2 kg cm-2), height of operation (50,100 and150 cm) and wind speed(1.4, 2.8 and 4.2 m s-1) for estimating spray volume distribution and drift potential in terms of width of operation, discharge rate, coefficient of variation, spray pattern displacement and change of dose volume. The results were analyzed statistically with OP stat for checking variation among different parameters. During the process of the standardisation of operational parameters of fogger nozzles, it was observed that, swath width of coverage increased with increase in pressure from 1 to 2 kg cm-2 and height of operation from 50 to 150 cm. The highest width of coverage was observed as 228 cm for spinning disc, 230.33 cm for four head and 133.33 cm for single head nozzle with 2 kg cm-2 pressure and 150 cm height of spray nozzle. Discharge rate increased with increase in pressure from 1 to 2 kg cm-2 and the height of operation had negligible effect on the discharge rate. Highest discharge at 2 kg cm-2 pressure and 150 cm height of operation was observed as 0.46l/min for spinning disc, 0.7 l/min for four head and 0.64 l/min for single head nozzle, the coefficient of variation also increased with increase in pressure from 1 to 1.5 kg cm- 2and decreased from 1.5 to 2 kg cm-2 and also increased with increase in height of operation.The effect of wind speed on spray uniformity was less with spinning disc nozzle when compared with single head and four head nozzles. Least coefficient of variation of 29.59, 37.52 and 78.23% was observed for spinning disc, single head and four head nozzle, respectively at 1.4 m s-1 wind speed. Change of dose volume and spray pattern displacement of nozzles was also increased with increase in wind speed for all three nozzles. Lowest change of dose volume observed as 0.0047, 0.0127 and 0.0267 l/min forsingle head, four head and spinning disc nozzle, respectively at 1.4 m s- 1 wind speed. Lowest spray pattern displacement was observed as 39.69, 35.58 and 41.19% for spinning disc, single head and four head nozzle respectively at 1.4 m s-1 wind speed. The operating parameters were standardized as operating pressure of 1.5 kg cm-2, height of operation of 50 cm and wind speed of 1.4 m s-1 for three fogger nozzles namely single head, four head and spinning disc nozzles for better performance. Keywords: Patternator, Nozzle testing, Spray pattern displacement. Swath width, Discharge rate, Change of dose volume,
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT OF ISOTHERMS OF WHEAT FLOUR AND EGG WHITE POWDER
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) SNEHITHA, R; SREENIVASULA REDDY, B
    Moisture sorption isotherms describe the relationship between moisture content of the food product and its equilibrium relative humidity. Isotherms are useful in drying and storage of the products. These help us to optimize the drying processes thus minimizing the energy utilization. Egg white powder (EWP) is the ingredient in many of the bakery foods, bakery mixes, mayonnaise and salad dressings, confections, ice cream, pastas, and many convenience foods. Similar to the EWP, wheat flour (WF) is used to prepare various types of breads and pastries, pasta, breakfast cereals and other products used for human consumption. The EWP and WF are subjected to the thermal treatments for improving the safety and functionality. The poultry products are associated with pathogenic Salmonella. The spray drying of egg white and milling of wheat do not produce sterile EWP and WF, respectively. However, the traditional thermal treatments take long time to reach the treatment temperature because of lower thermal conductivity. Hence, novel thermal processing methods such as radio-frequency and microwave methods were found to reduce processing times. These methods raise the temperature of the produce in package many times faster than that of the traditional methods. Taking the advantage of these novel methods, pasteurization methods for the powder/flour are found suitable to carry at higher temperatures upto 90 °C in order to reduce processing times and to improve productivity. As the product is being processed in package and heating rates are faster, there is a possibility of moisture losses from the product and deposition of moisture on inside package surfaces. The phenomenon of loss of moisture and deposition depends on the product moisture content and temperature which is not clearly understood. To understand such phenomenon the EMC-ERH data is needed. The EMC-ERH data of EWP and WF is available at lower temperatures. However, EMC-ERH data at higher temperatures throughout the relative humidity range is not available. Equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of EWP and WF were obtained by equilibrating their samples at 10-78% equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) at 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 °C above saturated inorganic salt solutions by using static gravimetric method. At a constant relative humidity, equilibrium moisture content decreased with increasing temperature. Similarly, at a constant temperature EMC increased with an increase in ERH and exhibited typical sigmoidal shape (Type-2 curve). The EMC values in the present study for both EWP and WF were lower than the literature values reported at lower environmental temperatures. Seven EMC-ERH models namely Henderson, modified Henderson, modified Chung-Pfost, modified Oswin, modified Halsey, modified GAB and Chen-Clayton were fitted to the observed data and were evaluated using mean relative percent error, standard error of estimate and residual plots. The models namely Henderson, modified Henderson and Chen-Clayton were found suitable to describe the EMC-ERH relationships of EWP and the best among the three is found to be the modified Henderson. The isotherm models namely modified Henderson, modified Chung-Pfost and Chen-Clayton were found suitable to describe the EMC-ERH relationships of WF in the experimental range. Among these suitable models, Chen Clayton model was found to be the best for WF. The heat of vaporization for both the EWP and WF was calculated separately in the moisture content range from 3 to 15% d.b. and at the temperatures 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 °C using the Clausius- Clapeyron equation. The heat of vaporization of EWP and WF increased as moisture content and temperature decreased and remained higher than that of pure water. Keywords: Egg white powder, Equilibrium moisture content, Heat of vaporization, Wheat flour.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DETOXIFICATION OF JATROPHA KERNEL MEAL TO UTILIZE AS AQUA-FEED
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) SUBARNA GHOSH; PRASAD, B.V.S.
    Detoxification of jatropha (Jatropha curcas) kernel meal is of major interest for the biodiesel industry to add economic value to this residue and also to reduce the environmental damage caused by its inappropriate disposal. Jatropha kernel meal has high protein content (26-29%) and, hence, has a great potential to be utilized as animal feed. But, because of the presence of anti-nutritional factors, its use in preparation of highly nutritious animal feed is restricted. Anti-nutritional factors present in jatropha kernel meal are phorbol esters, lectins, trypsin inhibitor, phytate and saponins. Toxicity of meal is mainly due to the presence of phorbol esters. Severalmethods have been tried for detoxifying kernel meal that includes physical, chemical, biological and radiation methods. Trypsin inhibitor and lectins are heat liable and, hence, can be inactivated by physical methods like, moist heating. Phorbol ester content can be decreased by chemical treatments such as, ethanol extraction or sodium hydrogen carbonate treatment; but, complete inactivation is not achieved by these methods. Biological treatment using bacteria and fungi can also decrease phorbol ester content to a limited extent. Very less literature is found on detoxification of jatropha kernel meal using UV radiation. Four different samples, i.e., raw, defatted, one-time mechanically oil expressed and two-times mechanically oil expressed samples were prepared from jatropha kernels. These samples were subjected to three treatments, namely, chemical, UV radiation and biological treatment for detoxification. Chemical treatment involved heating the samples with 90% methanol and 4% NaOH twice. UV treatment was done by subjecting the samples to UV radiation for 30 min in a closed chamber with UV light intensity of 53.4 mW/cm2. For biological treatment, strain Pseudomonas aeruginosawas used. Cellfree extract obtained from growing strains in a specific media was mixed with kernel meal samples to carry out detoxification. Five toxins, particularly, phorbol esters, lectins, trypsin inhibitor, phytate and saponins were estimated using standard analytical procedures before and after the three treatments. Toxins content were compared with values that are reported to be safe for aqua-feed to determine the effectiveness of these three treatments. Finally, chemically detoxified kernel meal was used for preparation of aqua-feed pellets and compressive strength of pellets was determined using force gauge. Chemical treatment was found to be most effective in reduction of toxins and all the toxins were found within acceptable limits to be utilized as aqua-feed. In chemically treated kernel meal, phorbol esters were found to be in range of 0.034-0.052 mg/g, lectin in the range of 0.082-10.766 mg/g, trypsin inhibitor in the range of 10.100-11.350 mg/g, phytate in the range of 0.248-0.577% and saponins in the range of 0.004-0.010%. Biological treatment was also effective in reduction of all toxins, except phytate and hence, biologically treated samples were not used in aqua-feed preparation. In biologically treated kernel meal, phorbol esters were found to be in range of 0.051- 0.102 mg/g, lectin in the range of 0.497-14.815 mg/g, trypsin inhibitor in the range of 9.194-12.657 mg/g, phytate in the range of 1.097-2.994% and saponins in the range of 0.005-0.011%. UV treatment was found to be ineffective in reduction of toxins and hence, was unsuitable for aqua-feed. It was also observed that temperature during solvent extraction and mechanical oil expression had an effect in reducing lectin, trypsin inhibitor and phytate content. Contents of these toxins were found inversely proportional to temperature. Pellets prepared from chemically detoxified kernel meal having lowest oil content resulted in highest strength of 70.93 N, i.e. defatted sample. Keywords: Chemical treatment; UV treatment; Biological treatment; Phorbol esters; Lectins; Trypsin inhibitor activity; Phytate; Saponins