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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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Subject: Agricultural Engineering × End date: 2022 × Thesis Type: M.Tech. ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT OF REMOTE CONTROL OPERATED SENSOR BASED SITE SPECIFIC CHEMICAL APPLICATOR
    (guntur, 2022-08-18) NAGARAJ, Er. BASANI; ASHOK KUMAR, A.
    Plant protection is one of the important aspects of agriculture which helps to increase farm productivity as well as profit generated per hectare. Crop protection chemicals play a vital role in protecting the crop from insects, fungus, viruses, and weeds. In the conventional spraying system, there is no cut-off mechanism to avoid spraying between plants due to which liquid chemical flows continuously from the nozzles on the plant canopy and in void space which results in 50 - 60 % of wastage in applied chemicals and increases disease control costs. The operator being exposed to hazardous chemicals, wastage of chemical inputs, and degradation of the environment were serious issues with the conventional methods of chemical application. The present study was conducted on the development and performance evaluation of self-propelled remote control operated sensor-based site-specific chemical applicator. The remote-control unit helps to operate the developed chemical applicator from without entering in to the field and the sensors help to spray exactly on the target (plant canopy) and avoid in the void space between the plants. Before developing the chemical applicator, all the required components were drawn and assembled in Solidworks software for fabrication accuracy. The developed chemical applicator was evaluated under laboratory and field conditions. During field evaluation, Chilli crop was chosen to test the developed chemical applicator. Before chemical application Water sensitive papers (WSP) named L1(top), L2(middle) and L3(bottom) were placed vertically on the canopy and WSP named L4 and L5 were placed horizontally on the soil surface at inter canopy region. Results obtained for developed chemical applicator were compared using with activation and without activation of sensors. ImageJ software was used for image analysis to find droplet size, density and percentage of area covered on crop. Cost economics of developed chemical applicator were also determined. xiv During evaluation, it was observed that the maximum detection range of three ultrasonic sensors was not uniform due to variation in frequency. So, to have a uniform detection range was adjusted to 65 cm. The average forward speed of the chemical applicator was 2.19 km h-1. The average discharge of the boom was 0.653 l min-1. It was observed that after 105 minutes of operation the voltage was dropped to 16.7 and further drop in voltage was not sufficient to propel the developed and took nearly 360 minutes to charge the discharged batteries. The droplet size, density and spray coverage were similar at L1, L2 and L3 locations of WSP during application of chemical with and without activation of sensors. The droplet size, density and spray coverage at L4 and L5 varied from 197.69 to 207.01 μm, 150.67 to 18.33 droplets per cm2 and 11.41 to 3.37 % during application of chemical with and without activation of sensors. The application rate of chemicals reduced from 151.22 l ha-1 to 73.32 l ha-1 when operated with activation of sensors. The actual field capacity and field efficiency of the developed chemical applicator was 0.263 ha h-1 and 61.73 %. The cost of operation of the developed chemical applicator for Chilli crop was 125 Rs h-1. The developed remote-control unit works satisfactorily in reducing the risk of exposure to harmful chemicals during spraying by the operator. The sensor based chemical applicator unit also worked satisfactorily for real time site specific chemical application and prevented excess use of chemicals and contamination of environment. Keywords: Ultrasonic sensors; site specific applicator; Image analysis; Object sensing; cost economics.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT OF FEEDING MECHANISM AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF GHERKIN GRADER
    (guntur, 2022-08-18) NITHIN DESHAI; SATYANARAYANA, CH.V.V.
    Gherkins belonging to cucurbit family has huge demand in the world trade market. About 2.12 lakh MT of gherkins and cucumbers are majorly exported to European countries. The southern part of India cultivates gherkins, 3 seasons per year under contract farming by more than 1,00,000 small and marginal farmers. The local processing companies support and prescribe the entire gamut of activities in the cultivation practices. But the main hindrance in the production of gherkins is the grading of produce at farm level. Still grading of gherkins is done manually using different sizes of sieves which is labour oriented, tedious and time consuming. Grading of gherkins plays an important role as the value of gherkins depends upon the size (width) of the fruit. As the size of the fruit increases the market value of gherkins decreases. The common grades of gherkins are grade 1: 18.5 to 25 mm and grade 4: > 25 mm according to the width preffered for export. Several researchers have developed mechanical graders based on the sieving principle which results in more damage to the gherkins. In view this, a power-operated gherkin grader based on the divergent rope principle causing negligible damage to the gherkins was developed at Dr. NTR CAE Bapatla. But in this machine, feeding was done manually, directly on the feeding chute. Manual feeding in bulk resulted in clogging at the grading unit affecting the grading efficiency of gherkins. In order to overcome clogging of gherkin on the grading unit due to bulk feeding, a feeding mechanism was designed, developed and evaluated. The developed feeding unit consists of a feed hopper, feed conveyor and oscillating unit which were developed based on the physical and engineering properties of gherkins. The feed hopper was designed in such a way that the bulk volume of gherkins are fed into the conveyor without clogging which further reaches the oscillating unit. Due to the reciprocating motion and corrugation of the guiding plate of the oscillating unit gherkins are aligned parallel to the diverging grading ropes. Diverging grading ropes assist the gherkins to drop as per their width at their respective collection unit. To evaluate the performance of the feeding mechanism, the parameters such as feed conveyor speed (12.9, 16.1, 19.3 and 22.5 m min-1), oscillating unit slope (0, 5, 10 and 15°), PU rope speed (10, 12.5, 15 and 17.5 m min-1) and PU rope slope (0,1.5 and 3°) were considered. Among these parameters, the best combination was at a feed conveyor speed of 19.3 m min-1, Oscillating unit slope of 15°, PU rope speed of 12.5 m min-1 and PU rope slope of 0°. Grading efficiency for grade 1, 2, 3 and 4 was determined to be 81.79 to 85.23%, 78.51 to 83.07%, 83.77 to 87.12% and 95.26 to 98.41% respectively. The cost of the gherkin grader with a newly developed feeding mechanism was determined to be Rs. 87,500/-. The cost of operation with a developed feeding mechanism was found to be Rs. 153 t-1 and Rs. 92 h-1 which resulted in money saving of 38.84% and time saving of 58.33%. Keywords: Gherkins; Feeding Mechanism; Performance Evaluation; Cost Economics
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    STUDIES ON DEVELOPMENT OF CHITOSAN BASED BIOPOLYMER EXTRACTED FROM FISH SCALES AND ITS PERFORMANCE ON FOOD
    (guntur, 2022-08-18) MADHU, B. O.; SMITH, D. D.
    The waste generated from the worldwide production and processing of shellfish and fish scales is a severe problem of growing magnitude. The uncountable number of processed food products and raw materials of food available in the market are highly perishable and need effective and efficient packaging systems for extending their shelflife. Thereby, food waste may be minimized and the health of the consumer safeguarded. Conventional polymeric materials cannot be easily degraded in soil, which accumulates in the environment and aids in environmental pollution. Synthetic plastics are replacing biopolymers due to their renewable and biodegradable characteristics. Biopolymers generally synthesized from living organisms are polynucleotides viz., DNA, RNA, polypeptides (proteins) and polysaccharides (polymeric carbohydrates). Chitosan obtained from crustacean waste leads to useful utilization with the reduction in risk of environmental pollution. However, biopolymers generally have poor mechanical properties. To overcome this problem, plasticizers are added to provide the necessary workability to biopolymers. An antimicrobial film made from chitosan and clove oil helps in increasing in shelflife and quality of highly perishable food. The effect of concentrations of glacial acetic acid (0.5, 1, 1.5 %), plasticizer (10, 25, 40 %) and clove oil (0.5, 0.75,1 %) on Physico-chemical, mechanical and antimicrobial properties of developed biopolymeric films was studied. Response surface xvii methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the tensile strength, elongation at break, puncture strength, film thickness, swelling index, water vapor transmission rate, antimicrobial property (E Coli), antimicrobial property (Bacillus Subtilis), film density, biodegradability and color. A central composite rotatable design (CCRD) was used for optimization. Thus obtained optimized process parameters were glacial acetic acid concentration of 1.5%, plasticizer concentration of 10% and clove oil concentration of 1% with the results of tensile strength, elongation at break, puncture strength, film thickness, swelling index, water vapor transmission rate, antimicrobial property E Coli, antimicrobial property bacillus Subtilis, film density, biodegradability, L*, a*, b* and ΔE as 1.80E-05, 41.0376, 265.828, 0.060314, 68.3957, 3.67E-09, 34.2417, 32.1933, 1.19933, 52.1527, 84.6315, -0.30714, 10.4098 and 3.925 respectively. The effect of chitosan-based biopolymeric film on the shelf life of chicken nuggets and sapota fruits was evaluated along with LDPE, HDPE and PP packaging film as control for ten days based on firmness, weight loss, pH, TSS, color, and microbial load of food samples and determined the film developed with 1.5% glacial acetic acid concentration, 10% plasticizer and 1% clove oil showed good results and enhanced its shelf life. Keywords: Chitosan; Biopolymer; Plasticizer; Clove oil; Glacial acetic acid; Shelf life; Tensile strength; Antimicrobial
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    FORTIFICATION OF RICE WITH MICRONUTRIENTS (IRON & FOLIC ACID )THROUGH PARBOILING
    (guntur, 2022-08-18) VANI, GANJAHALLI; JAGANNADHA RAO, P.V.K.
    micronutrient deficiency in countries with high per capita rice consumption. In exicisting technologies of rice fortification are encounted related to color, taste, a loss of micronutrients during washing and cooking and high capital cost. Fortification through parboiling is an innovative technology to increase the micronutrients like iron and folic acid. Fortification of micronutrients through parboiling, which involves the addition of micronutrients to the soaking water that provides absorption of micronutrients into the lattice structure of endosperm through water, distribution of micronutrients along with starch granules throughout the endosperm therefore no loss of micronutrients occurs during washing and cooking. Three paddy cultivars MTU7029, IR64 and MTU1010 were procured for parboiling; these cultivars are suitable for parboiling in Andhra pradesh. An effect of soaking temperature (60, 65 and 70° C), soaking time (2, 3 and 4h) and concentration of fortificants (iron- 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 g/100 g: folic acid – 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 g/100 g) on iron and folic acid fortification of rice were studied using Response surface methodology (RSM). Optimized process parameters for iron and folic acid fortified rice was obtained at 65 °C for 3h, the fortificant concentration for NaFeEDTA 0.2g /100g and the folic acid concentration 0.3g/100g by Design expert analysis. The physico- chemical properties of rice such as size, moisture content, protein, ash, fat, carbohydrates, iron and folic acid were determined in all three cultivars. The Physicochemical properties (fat, protein, ash and carbohydrates) of fortified rice were similar to parboiled rice, whereas, retention of iron and folic acid were more in fortified rice compared to parboiled rice. The retention of iron and folic acid in three cultivars before polishing were 26, 23.5 and 22.5 mg/100 g for iron and 527.34, 458.33 and 412 μg/100 g for folic acid in Name of the Author : GANJAHALLI VANI Title of the thesis : FORTIFICATION OF RICE WITH MICRONUTRIENTS (IRON AND FOLIC ACID) THROUGH PARBOILNG Degree to which it is submitted : Master of Technology Faculty : Agricultural Engineering Major field of study : PROCESSING AND FOOD ENGINEERING Major Advisor : Dr. P.V.K. JAGANNADHA RAO University : Acharya N.G Ranga Agricultural University Swarna, IR64 and MTU1010 respectively. The percent iron and folic acid decreased from brown rice to polished rice was ranging 30 to 35% and 38 to 42%, respectively. The head rice yield of parboiled rice and fortified rice were similar and these values are high when compared to raw rice. In rice colour values, L* values were decreased and b* values were increased in fortified parboiled rice as compared to raw rice in all cultivars. The cooking time of parboiled rice is more as compared to the raw rice in among the cultivars. The shorter cooking time was found for IR64 parboiled rice followed by MTU1010 and MTU7029. The minimum predicted storage life was observed as 304 days for folic acid fortified rice with IR64 cultivar packed in LDPE packaging material and maximum predicted storage life as 590 days was obtained for MTU7029 iron fortified rice packed in PP packaging material. This shows that the fortified parboiled rice can be stored 10 to 19 months. The good rankings were shown in sensory evaluation for iron and folic acid fortified rice. The results revealed that fortified rice has good acceptance on par with parboiled rice for three varieties. The cost of fortified rice was less compared to commercially available capsules for similar intake of iron and folic acid. Keywords: Fortification, parboiling, Iron, Folic acid, Response Surface Methodology, Physico- chemical properties, Swarna, IR64 and MTU 1010.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF SEMI AUTOMATIC INTER AND INTRA ROW WEEDER FOR WIDER ROW SPACED CROPS
    (guntur, 2022-08-18) KISHORE, ARIGELA; JOSEPH REDDY, S.
    Weeds are unwanted and undesirable plants which interfere with the utilization of land and water resources and thus adversely affect crop growth. They can also be referred as plants out of place. Weeds compete with the beneficial and desired vegetation in crop lands, forests, aquatic systems etc. Weeding is an essential requirement to enhance crop growth. Handling the weeds nearby crop plants needs more attention and operation of machine is difficult along with crop. Hence, it is weeds grow mostly carried at present by engaging manual labor and become a labor intensive agricultural operation. Weeding accounts for about 25 % of the total labour requirement during a cultivation season. Whereas on the other hand machines can perform weed control when the crops are wellrooted, because if the intra-row weeders mentioned above have contact with the crops, the crops will not be damaged. This requirement causes a difficulty in controlling weeds at very early planting stage. The crop parameters those influence the weeding operation are row to row spacing, intra row spacing between the plants and also the crop physical parameters. Generally, the row to row spacing in wider spaced crops varies from 60 to 90 cm or 60 to 120 cm. while plant to plant spacing varies from 30 to 60 cm. The height of the plant, number of branches and crop canopy varies at different stages of weeding also influence the design of the weeding machine. Clearance required between the rows and also from ground to chassis of the power source, in case of power operated weeding equipment also effect the weeding efficiency. The height of the plant as well as the canopy of the plant at different stages are to be taken into consideration to improve weeding efficiency and to reduce the plant damage, particularly, while working between the plants with in the row. A study was therefore undertaken on “development and evaluation of semiautomatic inter and intra row weeder for wider row spaced crops” at Dr. NTR College of Agricultural Engineering, Bapatla. The tractor mounted implement was evaluated by varying forward speeds i.e., 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 km h-1 at constant RPM of 180, 220 and 290 respectively and 2, 4 and 6 cm depth of operation levels in chilli crop. Name of the Author : ARIGELA KISHORE Title of the thesis : “Development and Evaluation of Semi- Automatic Inter and Intra Row Weeder for Wider Row Spaced Crops” 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. S. JOSEPH REDDY University : ACHARYA N. G. RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY Year of Submission : 2021 Lower weeding efficiencies were obtained at all depth of operation levels at forward speed of 0.6 km h-1. The rate of increase in weeding efficiency was more when forward speed increased than increase in depth of operation. The weeding efficiency was almost constant for further increase of forward speed from 1.0 to 1.8 km h-1. It was clear that the percentage of plant damage was zero or constant above 45 cm plant to plant distance. Below 45 cm plant to plant distance, the percentage of plant damage was found to be from 0 to 100 %. Draft increased with the increase in forward speed at all levels of depth of operation. It was observed that the field capacity increased with the increase of forward speed at all levels of depth of operation in all the crops both at 45 cm intra row spacing. It was observed that the fuel consumption was almost constant for further increase of forward speed from 1.0 to 1.8 km h-1. Cost of operation with developed inter and intra row weeder was observed to be low when compared with traditional method of weeding operation. The saving in cost was about Rs. 5,220 ha-1 over traditional method of weeding. keywords: Semi-automatic, inter and intra row, depth, weeding efficiency, plant damage, draft, field capacity.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF COTTON STALK UPROOTER CUM SHREDDER
    (guntur, 2022-08-17) RAJU YADAV, Er. K.; JOSEPH REDDY, S.
    Cotton is the most important fiber and cash crop of India and plays a dominant role in industrial and agricultural economy of the country.Cotton is both tropical and subtropical crop.One of the most difficulties in cotton producers is the need to clear the ground stalk odd cotton plants after final harvesting. At present, only manual uprooting or cutting of the plant stalks are followed, which is highly labour intensive, time consuming and costly. In some area’s farmers used repeated heavily disking to cut the cotton stalks and cover it with soil. Pink boll warm (PBW) insect causes maximum damage to cotton crop. Commonly available cotton stalk shredder cut the plant 5-6 inches above the soil surface. Shredders are not handling with root and the root system measures as a disposal problem to the cotton growers. If the roots are not uprooted, the insects and pests will remain alive and transfer to the next year. The experimental study was conducted on “Development and evaluation of cotton stalk uprooter cum shredder” was carried out at RARS Nandyal. In the experimental plot the row to row and intra spacing are 60 and 30 cm. The physical properties of cotton stalks were calculated initially. The average values of height of cotton plant, taproot length, diameter, stalk moisture and soil moisture are 117.4 cm, 34.7 cm, 2.2 cm, 27.1 % and 11.1 % respectively.Three widths of blades (10, 15 and 20 cm) were selected for uprooting of cotton stalks at three depths (5, 10 and 15 cm) and operation speeds at (1.3, 1.5 and 1.65 km.h-1). The uprooting efficiency was 95.2% maximum for 20 cm width of the blade at 15 cm depth the operating speed of 1.65 km.h-1 but it requires more draft force 341.4 kgf and wheel slip was 17.2%. The uprooting efficiency 91.6% for the blade of 20 cm width slightly less at depth of 10 cm require less draft force of 257.4 kgf and was slip wheel was less 10.3 % at operating speed of 1.65km. h-1. The minimum U.E was obtained 79.9 % and 83.2 % for 10 and 15 cm width of the blade at depth of 10 cm and operating speed was 1.65 km.h-1 respectively. The draft obtained for 10 and 15 cm width of the blade at 10 cm depth were 239.8 and 253.2 kgf and wheel slip was 8.3 and 9.3% at operating speed of 1.65 km. h-1. The operating speed of 1.3 got minimum uprooting efficiency of 52.5, 62.2 and 69.5 % and speed of 1.5 km.h-1 has uprooting efficiency of 62.5, 64.4 and 79.9 % more than1.3 km.h-1 14 for the 10, 15 and 20 cm width of the blade at10 cm depth. The theoretical field capacity was 0.33 ha.h-1was maximum at operating speed of 1.65 km.h-1 and minimum of 0.26 ha.h-1for the blade width of 20 cm at operating speed of 1.3 km.h-1. The effective field capacity for 20 cm width of the blade was maximum of 0.28 ha.h-1at operating speed of km.h-1 and minimum of 0.16 ha.h-1at operating speed of 1.3 km.h-1. The field efficiency of 84.4 % was at 1.65 km.h-1 and minimum field efficiency of 61.5 % at operating speed of 1.3 km.h-1.The cost economics of cotton stalk Uprooter cum shredder was less 2550 Rs.h-1 when compared with manual method. Key words:Uprooting efficiency, draft force, wheel slip, width of the blade, depth of operation, speedof operation and field efficiency.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF TWIN-ROW MAIZE PLANTER
    (guntur, 2022-08-17) AJAY, Er. ARIGELA; RAMIREDDY, K. V. S.
    Maize (Zea mays L) is among the most suitable crop and more extensive versatility under different agro-climatic conditions. Maize is the world’s important cereal crop with the highest production and productivity next to rice and wheat. Globally, maize is recognized as the queen of cereals for the reason that it has a greater heredity yield potential compared to other cereals. The Latin American countries first adopted and cultivated maize and the Portuguese first introduced it in India during the 17th century. In addition to food and feed, maize needs significant in the production of different products in different industries. More than 35% of world maize is produced by the United States (USDA,2016). China, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and India are other major countries that are producing maize. After rice and wheat, maize is the third significant crop in India. In India maize is cultivated throughout the year and represents about 10% of overall food grain production. Karnataka stands first in the production of maize16% followed by Telangana and Bihar which together produces 20% and Andhra Pradesh produces 8% of India’s total maize production. Approximately 85% of maize is produced in India during the Kharif season (farmer.gov.in). Maize can be grown effectively in various soils that are loamy sand to clay loam and soils with excellent natural organic matter. However, maize from germination to flowering requires considerable moisture and temperature. Maize can be grown in the Kharif and Rabi seasons. Maize seed is sown by different methods i.e., seed dropping behind a plough, dibbling, zero till drill planting, ridge planting and furrow planting. The most labour intensive operations in maize cultivation are sowing, thinning, weeding and harvesting which are currently conducted manually. An alternate approach in maize seed sowing is twin-row planters. Some researchers studied the conventional and twin-row spacing methods and concluded that the spacing of twin-row leads to an increase in the mean maize yield and better growth than the conventional spacing. Maize that planted by using twin-row maize planter gives more equidistance and staggered plant spacing. Twin rows offer better PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation), which increases better crop and root growth due to better photosynthesis. Furthermore, a quicker canopy leads to fewer weeds and the humidity in the soil conserved. xii The experimental study was conducted with Development and evaluation of twin-row maize planter which was carried out at Dr. NTR College of Agricultural Engineering, Baptla. The physical properties of seeds were calculated initially. The mean values of seed length, width, thickness, sphericity, geometric mean diameter, surface area, bulk density, coefficient of static friction, angle of repose and thousand kernel weight were 11.00 mm, 7.75 mm, 4.58 mm, 0.65, 7.09 mm, 158.14 mm2,746.4 kg m-3, 0.60, 28.170 and 0.23 kg, respectively.Two seed metering mechanisms namely roller type and cup type metering were selected and suitable seed boxes for each metering mechanism were developed and the two metering mechanisms were evaluated in the laboratory. From obtaining results from the laboratory the effective metering mechanism was selected for twin-row maize planter. From laboratory results seed to seed spacing with cup type metering was 9.5, 14, 14.2, and 16 cm and with roller type metering system it was 11, 14, 19.8and 20 cm at 10, 15, 20, and 25 rpm belt operational speed respectively. Missing index was 11.1 to 17.1% for cup type system and 2.28 to 15.29% for roller type metering unit at belt operational speed of 10, 15, 20, and 25 rpm. Seed multiple index with roller type metering unit was 22.2 to 8.89% and with cup type metering system was 24 to 13.33% at 10, 15, 20, and 25 rpm speed of operation, respectively. Based on the laboratory results roller type metering was selected. The spacing between twin-rows was 20 cm. Results obtained from actual field conditions the average seed spacing with roller type metering mechanism was 17.8, 19.1, and 20 cm at operating speed of 1.5, 2, and 2.5 kmh-1 respectively. The acceptable seed spacing occurred at operating speed of 2.5 kmh-1. Seed missing index was 10.44 to 27% with an operational speed of 1.5 to 2.5 kmh-1. Field efficiency of developed twin-row planter at 1.5, 2, and 2.5 kmh-1 speed of operation was 76.9, 88.8, and 87%, respectively. Wheel slip of the developed twin-row maize planter was 1.2 and 5.8% with a depth of 6, 8cm respectively. Operational cost for developed planter was Rs. 1910.77 ha-1. Key words: Roller type metering mechanism, cup type metering device, twin-rows, PAR, seed missing index, seed multiple index and field efficiency.
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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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    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