Loading...
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...
News
https://angrau.ac.in/ANGRU/Library_Resources.aspx
Browse
62 results
Search Results
ThesisItem Open 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.ThesisItem Open 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 EconomicsThesisItem Open 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; AntimicrobialThesisItem Open 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.ThesisItem Open 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.ThesisItem Open 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.ThesisItem Open 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.ThesisItem Open Access DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF PROTOTYPE RIPENED CHILLI HARVESTER(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) PRABHAKARA RAO, T; RAMANA, CIndia is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of chilli. Chillies are cultivated mainly in tropical and sub-tropical countries like India, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, United states of America and African countries. Chilli is believed to have been introduced to India by Portuguese explorers at Goa in 17th century. The fruit of chilli plants have a variety of names depending on place and type. It is commonly called chilli pepper, red or green pepper, or sweet pepper in Britain, and typically just capsicum in Australian and Indian English. In Indian subcontinent, chillies are produced throughout the year. Two crops are produced in kharif and Rabi seasons in the country. Chilli grown best at 20–30°C temperatures, growth and yields suffer when temperatures exceed 30°C or drops below 15°C for extended periods. Now-a-days, cost of cultivation of chilli is increased day by day due to indiscriminate use of inputs like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides and also scarcity of labour. The major harvest season is between December-March with supply reaching peak levels in February-April. Planting is held mainly during August-October. Chilli cultivation needs more number of labourers for harvesting apart from the usual field operations such as sowing, weeding, pesticide applications, etc. as compared to other field crops. It is harvested (picking) 2 to 4 times and these harvestings are within a short span of time to get the quality produce, otherwise market price of chilli will be reduced. High cost and dearth of labour for hand harvest has resulted in increased chilli production cost declining even as consumption grows. Mechanization is only the way to reduce the cost of harvest and there by cost of production to make farmer comfortable with cost of harvest. The experimental set up was designed with two counter rotating double helical rollers of each length 200 cm and overall diameter 14 cm. The base frame was developed with the height of 100 cm, width of 85 cm and length of 160 cm to house the double helical rollers inside of the base frame. The rollers were fixed in the base frame inclined to the horizontal. The electrical motor was used as a prime mover to operate the double helical rollers at required speed for harvesting of ripens chilli pods. The experimental set up was tested to optimize the design parameters to get the maximum harvesting efficiency.The experimental unit of chilli harvester was fabricated to accommodate four different gaps between two rollers and four rotational speeds of counter rotating double helical rollers. The pulleys were changed on the double helical roller to get the four numbers of speeds like 289 rpm, 393 rpm, 484 rpm and 658 rpm by keeping constant pulley on power source. The four numbers of gaps were provided between the two rollers as 31cm, 32cm, 33cm and 340cm. The chilli harvester efficiency was calculated and varied from 29% to 31%. The harvesting efficiency of experimental set up was not in the acceptable range. The experimental set up was tested in all possible operating parameter combinations. The computed harvesting efficiency of machine observed at rollers speed of 289 rpm and rollers having gap of 320 mm was 9.41% at 2.0 km. h-1 forward speed. Likewise efficiency of machine at 330 mm gap of rollers was 9.97%, 14.00% efficiency was got at 340 mm space between rollers and 13.88% machine efficiency was observed at 350 mm gap between rollers with same 289 rpm of rollers speed with 2.0 km. h-1 forward speed. The roller speed was changed to 393 rpm and the computed resultant efficiencies of machine were 15.65%, 21.04%, 42.16% and 43.78% at rollers gap 320, 330, 340 and 350 mm respectively. The machine was run at 2.0 km. h-1 forward speed 481 rpm rollers speed with 320, 330, 340 and 350 mm space between rollers and computed efficiencies were 15.50%, 46.09%, 73.21% and 64.95% respectively. The efficiencies of machine at 658 rpm rollers speed with variable gaps between rollers 320, 330, 340 and 350 mm were 15.81%, 65.52%, 73.75% and 67.02%, respectively at same forward speed 2.0 km. h-1. In the similar way the machine was tested at 3.5 km. h-1 forward speed with variable gaps between rollers 320, 330, 340 and 350 mm at variable roller speeds 289, 393, 481 and 658 rpm respectively. The maximumefficiency 59.52% at rollers speed 658 rpm with gap 340 mm and minimum efficiency was observed 7.04% at 289 rpm rollers speed with gap between rollers 320 mm. The maximum mechanical damage of the harvested crop was 3.6%. The experimental set up was modified with regards power supply to double helical rollers, rotational speed and gap between the two rollers. The prototype ripened chilli harvester was fabricated with optimized design parameters and hitched to the high clearance tractor with help of two linkages. The power was transmitted to run the double helical rollers from the high clearance tractor PTO. The machine was evaluated in the farmers fields at Murikipadu village in Guntur district. The prototype harvester was operated with the optimized combinations of rollers speed and gap between two rollers like S1G1, S1G2, S1G3, S1G4, S2G1, S2G2, S2G3, S2G4, S3G1, S3G2, S3G3, S3G4, S4G1, S4G2, S4G3 and S4G4. The prototype chilli harvester was evaluated at each combination of rollers and the harvesting efficiency of prototype ripen chilli harvester was 72.08% at the speed 2.0 km. h-1 and roller gap of 340 mm. Thecalculated efficiencies were compared with existing practice of harvesting in manual harvesting. The labour required for harvesting of ripened chilli varied from 350 to 400 man.days per acreand approximate cost incurred for pickings was Rs.93750/- per acre whereas mechanical harvesting with developed machine was Rs.1567 per picking and for two pickings it is Rs.3134 per acre (Rs.7835/- per hectare). More importantly the labour saving was 98% and 2904 man hours when compared to manual harvesting.ThesisItem Open Access DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF TRACTOR OPERATED GROUNDNUT COMBINE FOR HARVESTED CROP(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) VENNELA, BASIREDDY; RAMANA, CGroundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oilseed crop in India cultivated in an area of 6.7 million hectares with a production of 7.0 million tonnes annually. The crop can be grown successfully in areas receiving the rainfall ranging from 600 to 1250 mm. The best soils for groundnut crop are sandy loam, loam and medium black with a good drainage system. The present practice of manual harvesting and threshing consumes huge amount of labour to a magnitude of about 175 to 200 women h ha-1. It is very tedious and time consuming operation and is being adopted by for small scale farming. The manual method is the process of harvesting groundnut manually by hand, using expensive human labour. Since it is a labour intensive operation, scarcity of labour is often experienced during the peak harvesting season. One of the solution for reducing losses and dependency on human labour is to mechanize both harvesting and threshing simultaneously in groundnut cultivation. Several efficient independent machines are available for harvesting and threshing separately by manual feeding, but collecting harvested crop and feeding into thresher is again a labour intensive operation. Moreover, the harvesting requires maximum energy and combining may not be feasible with a commonly available tractor. Hence, the combine was developed by designing collecting, conveying and threshing systems for harvested groundnut crop. In this process, available machines like digger shaker and wet pod thresher were evaluated and synchronized the harvested quantity with the threshing ability of selected threshing mechanism. The tractor drawn groundnut digger shaker implement was tested in a total area of 0.27 hectares of sandy loam soil. Trials were carried out and the crop was sown with recommended row spacing 30 cm and 10 cm intra row spacing. The results revealed that plant height, plant width, root length, number of plants, number of pods per plant and number of filled and unfilled pods at the time of harvest was recorded as 35.8 cm, 17.53 cm, 25.27 cm, 27.12, 20.04 and 7.08 respectively. The highest average effective field capacity obtained using tractor drawn groundnut digger shaker was 0.35 ha h-1. The highest average field efficiency of 80.10% recorded for tractor drawn groundnut digger shaker at a soil moisture content of 12%. The haulm yield of the windrows formed for a harvested distance of 10 m was 1.011 kg for xv single row, 2.128 kg for two rows and 3.518 kg for three rows. Performance of wet pod thresher selected for a design was observed at a feed rate of 870 kg h-1 and the thresher output was 227.25 kg h-1 with the total number of the labours of 7. The designed collecting unit was provided with a rake angle of 600. The maximum conveying efficiency of the groundnut combine of 82.40% for the lateral conveyor was obtained at a combination of 1.19 ms-1 peripheral velocity of picker conveyor, forward speed of 1.59 km h-1 and 10 cm spacing of flaps. From the statistical interaction it was confirmed that the second speed of the prime mower i.e. 1.59 km h-1 is optimal for the collecting, conveying and hence the forward speed of the operation was fixed as 1.59 km h-1 for ensuring better collection. Similarly, the spacing of the flaps out of 5, 10 and 15 cm, the 10 cm spaced flaps gave best results in all independent trials with respective conveying of collected crop mass. Hence spacing between flaps designed to be 10 cm. The highest lateral conveying efficiency of 92.40% was obtained at a combination of Sf2-F2-Pv2 i.e. 10 cm - 1.59 km h-1- 1.19 ms-1 which confirmed for designed collecting mechanism. In the design of vertical elevator, the increase in slat spacing from 50 to 100 mm increased the conveying efficiency at all selected levels of peg end projections and peripheral velocity. The highest vertical conveying efficiency of 92.56% was obtained at a combination of S2-Pf2-Pv2 i.e. 10cm -1200- 1.19 ms-1, which confirmed results obtained during the trial. The performance of the developed combine for the harvested crop was observed that efficiency of the lateral and vertical conveyor was 92.40 and 92.56 respectively and the effective field capacity was 0.122 ha h-1 with an average fuel consumption of about 4.67 l h-1. The threshing efficiency of the developed groundnut combine was 82.54% compared to wet pod thresher because of slow feeding of the crop into the thresher from the trough. It was observed that the operation of groundnut combine resulted in 74.92 % saving in cost when compared to conventional method of manual collecting and hand stripping. It was also concluded that, the number of hours required for operating the developed combine harvester was 6.67 machine hours + 16 man hours which was least compared to treatment T3 conventional method of collecting and threshing was 200 h. As cost reduction between T1 and T2 were 1253.75 Rs ha-1 and 1370.94 Rs ha-1, the time required for collecting and threshing was more in T2 which is of 5.7 machine hours and 56 man hours, whereas for T1, it requires only 6.67 machine hours and 16 man hours. An overall saving of man hours from the developed machine was 92% and 71.42% over T3 and T2 respectively. It was observed that the output capacity of the thresher was 216.6 kg h-1 and the broken pod loss was 1.27%. The threshing capacity was 83.58% and the cleaning efficiency was 81.68%. The machine was tested in the experimental plot and field efficiency was found to be 76.72% with optimized design parameters at 1.59 km h-1 forward speed.