Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

The history of agricultural education in Kerala can be traced back to the year 1896 when a scheme was evolved in the erstwhile Travancore State to train a few young men in scientific agriculture at the Demonstration Farm, Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram, presently, the Cropping Systems Research Centre under Kerala Agricultural University. Agriculture was introduced as an optional subject in the middle school classes in the State in 1922 when an Agricultural Middle School was started at Aluva, Ernakulam District. The popularity and usefulness of this school led to the starting of similar institutions at Kottarakkara and Konni in 1928 and 1931 respectively. Agriculture was later introduced as an optional subject for Intermediate Course in 1953. In 1955, the erstwhile Government of Travancore-Cochin started the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Mannuthy, Thrissur for imparting higher education in agricultural and veterinary sciences, respectively. These institutions were brought under the direct administrative control of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Animal Husbandry, respectively. With the formation of Kerala State in 1956, these two colleges were affiliated to the University of Kerala. The post-graduate programmes leading to M.Sc. (Ag), M.V.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees were started in 1961, 1962 and 1965 respectively. On the recommendation of the Second National Education Commission (1964-66) headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari, the then Chairman of the University Grants Commission, one Agricultural University in each State was established. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) were established in India as an integral part of the National Agricultural Research System to give the much needed impetus to Agriculture Education and Research in the Country. As a result the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) was established on 24th February 1971 by virtue of the Act 33 of 1971 and started functioning on 1st February 1972. The Kerala Agricultural University is the 15th in the series of the SAUs. In accordance with the provisions of KAU Act of 1971, the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, were brought under the Kerala Agricultural University. In addition, twenty one agricultural and animal husbandry research stations were also transferred to the KAU for taking up research and extension programmes on various crops, animals, birds, etc. During 2011, Kerala Agricultural University was trifurcated into Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU), Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) and Kerala Agricultural University (KAU). Now the University has seven colleges (four Agriculture, one Agricultural Engineering, one Forestry, one Co-operation Banking & Management), six RARSs, seven KVKs, 15 Research Stations and 16 Research and Extension Units under the faculties of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering and Forestry. In addition, one Academy on Climate Change Adaptation and one Institute of Agricultural Technology offering M.Sc. (Integrated) Climate Change Adaptation and Diploma in Agricultural Sciences respectively are also functioning in Kerala Agricultural University.

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Open Access
Design, fabrication and testing of a power operated jab type paddy dibbler
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1997) Maji Krishnan, G; KAU; Jippu, Jacob
A power operated jab type paddy dibbler developed and tested at K.C.A.E.T, Tavanur is described. A cup feed type metering mechanism, discharged the seeds into the distribution wheel. Rotation of this wheel caused the transfer of seeds from the distribution wheel to the seed tubes. The to and fro motion of the plungers inside the five seed tubes closed and opened the port between the seed tran9fer tube and seed tube at predetermined intervals. A cam and follower arrangement fitted on the main shaft regulated the to and fro motion of the plungers. In operation, the rotation of the dibbler wheel caused the tip of seed tubes to make holes in the soil. At the time of penetration the plunger occupied a position farthest to the main shaft thus keeping the tip of seed tube closed. This prevented the entry of soil into the seed tube. After the seed tube has reached the maximum depth the plunger is moved up quickly transferring the seeds into the holes. The dibbler gave seed rates of 87.1, 74.6, 68.0, and 61.1 kg/ha at the speeds 0.788, 1.152, 1.530 and 1.778 km/h respectively in the field. It placed at an average 3-6 seeds in a hill at a depth of 4-4.2 cm. The number of seeds mechanically damaged was only 0.89 per cent and loss of viability due to mechanical damage was only 3.77 per cent. The average power required was 0.093 hp. Labour requirement was 60.68 man-h/ha. Cost of operation of this dibbler was Rs 86.0/h including the cost of power source. The jab type dibbler is convenient for use by both men and women.
Open Access
Development of powertiller operated paddy reaper windrower
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1997) Shiny, Lukose; KAU; Sivaswami, S
A vertical conveyor reaper-windrower suitable for mounting on KAMCO 9hp powertiller was developed Kerala for the first time. After considering the maneuvrability, weight distribution, field capacity and power transmission, the 1.6m width vertical reaper was selected for the KAMCO powertiller and was locally fabricated. The complete rotavator unit was dismantled and a newly designed power transmission unit was fitted on the KAMCO powertiller. The handle was kept at an ergonomically suitable height of 1m. A combination frame was developed inorder to accommodate both the engine and the reaper at the most appropriate location to achieve the static and dynamic balancing during field operation after the removal of rotavator. The centre of gravity of the engine at the new location was 50mm in front of the wheel axle and at a height of 180mm from its original position. Field evaluation of the reaper was carried out during November and December, 1996 at Tavanur. The front mounted reaper- windrower was evaluated to find out the optimum engine speed and forward speed to achieve better harvesting and windrowing pattern, maximum field capacity and field efficiency with less harvesting losses were found out. For the recommended engine speed of 1200 to 1400rpm at low first and low second gears a forward speed of 0.53 to O. 94m per sec. was obtained in the field. The actual cutting width was 1.5m. The maximum field efficiency of 85 per cent was obtained for first gear when the engine rpm was 1200. Actual field capacity for this speed was 0.224ha per hr. It was seen that for the recommended engine speed between 1200 to 1400rpm a normal forward speed of (.53 to 0. 94m/sec was obtained with an average actual field capacity of 0.25 ha/hr and an average total grain loss of 1.9 per cent in the field. Downward handle reaction for this recommended speeds varied between 9 to 14 kgf at the time releasing the clutch or using the accelarator. By the use of powertiller reaper a labour saving of 82.5 per cent was obtained. The owner would get a monitory benefit of Rs.1210/ha while the farmer hiring the reaper would get a saving of Rs.830/ha compared to manual harvesting. The initial invest of the owner would be paid back within 2 years if he could hire it out for 1000hrs per year. The total weight of the unit is 451kg which is 34kg less than the original weight the powertiller with rotavator unit. Its overall dimensions are L:279S x W: 1650 x h: 1510mm and the total cost is Rs.1,16,500.
Open Access
Design fabrication and testing of an arecanut dehusker
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology,Tavanur, 1993) Febi Varghese; KAU; Jippu Jacob
A power operated arecanut dehusker is designed, developed and its performance evaluated. The major parts are the hopper, feeder, lead plate, cutting blade, shearing roller, friction plate and scraper. The feeder receives the graded fruit from the hopper and delivers it on the lead plate. The fruit is compressed between the rotating shearing roller and the lead plate. The teeth on the roller peel off the husk and the kernel is ejected out through the slot on the lead plate and the husk removed. A single phase 0.5 hp motor operates the machine. From the studies, the optimum set - up of the machine for deriving maximum dehusking efficiency and Iower percentage of the number kernels damaged is at a speed of 35 rpm, blade angle of 600 and slot angle of 1400. At this set - up the machine gives an output of 9.0 kg dried fruit/h, with 84.5 per cent dehusking efficiency.
Open Access
Evaluation and modification of powertiller operated paddy reaper
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1995) Selvan, P; KAU; Sivaswami, N
The study on power tiller operated paddy reaper-windrower was taken up solve the problems of labour scarcity and uneconomic cost of cultivation of paddy. The 1.6 m vertical conveyer reaper-windrower was fabricated and was mounted with commercially available 8-10 hp air cooled Mistubishi power tiller. Improvements and modifications were carried out to make the unit suitable for harvesting of paddy in Kerala. The original engine chasis of the power tiller was replaced with a newly fabricated chasis on which both the engine and paddy harvester were mounted. Difficulties were experienced in starting and in operating the harvester when the drive was taken directly from the engine pulley to the cutterbar. Initialy the unit was operated with rotovator at the rear side. It was found difficulty in crossing the bunds, hence rotovator was removed. After detailed studies, an auxiliary gear box was designed and fabricated for transmitting power to reaper from the rotovator gear assembly. The rear rotovator was dismantled and the auxiliary gear box was assembled. For balancing, a counter weight of 35 kg was added in between the handles. The crop is cut by the reciprocating knife while passing through crop dividers, star wheels, pressure springs and is conveyed by a pair of lugged conveyer belts and is discharged as a neat windrow. Improvements and modifications were carriedout on most of the reaper components. Field evaluation of paddy harvester was carried out at KCAET Tavanur for two seasons. It was found that harvester has an effective cutting width of 1.55 m and an average field capacity of 0.02036 ha/hr. The pre harvest loss, sickle loss, shattering loss and total cutter bar loss were found to be 0.005 per cent, 2.43 per cent and 0.026 per cent respectively. The power tiller operated reaper-windower was found suitable for harvesting paddy both in wet as well as dry fields except the fully lodged crops. It is an appropriate machinery for harvesting paddy and is found economically and technically suitable for Kerala conditions. It was calculated that manual harvesting needs Rs. 1625/ha whereas power tiller operated reaper needs only Rs. 348/ha and thus achieved a saving of amount of Rs. 1277/ha. The savings of 186 man-hrs/ha achieved by the introduction of power tiller operated paddy reaper is a promising solution for the crisis of labour scarcity and the high cost of labour input in the paddy cultivation.
Open Access
Design, development and evaluation of a power tiller operated bed former
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1991) Shaji James, p; KAU; Sankaranarayanan, M R
A power tiller operated Bed Former was developed and evaluated. The main components of the prototype unit of the power tiller operated Bed Former are, a main frame, two pairs of forming boards, a leveling board, a hitching unit and a depth control cum transport wheel. The equipment was found capable of forming seed beds of heights 22 cm, 18 cm and 15 cm at a width range of 60-64 cm. Heights of 18 cm and 15 cm were possible at width ranges of 73-75 cm and 80 – 81 cm. The draft of the implement ranges from 115.59 kgf to 169.69 kgf. The power utilization of the implement varies from 0.586 hp to 0.771 hp and the wheel slip between 46.76 per cent and 77.1 per cent. The mean effective field capacity of the implement is 0.0996 ha/hr and the mean field efficiency is 46.3 per cent. The total cost of production of the unit is Rs. 2000/- and the cost of operation per hectare is Rs. 777/-. The amount that can be saved by using the implement is Rs. 1473/- per hectare.
Open Access
Development and performance evaluation of a black pepper skinner
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1996) Anandabose, D; KAU; Jippu Jacob
A power operated black pepper skinner was developed, tested and its performance evaluated. The major parts were two cylinder – concave assemblies, a hopper, a feed roll, an inclined belt separator assembly and a variable speed electric motor with a speed reduction unit of 10:1 ratio. The decortications took place as a result of the compressive and the shearing forces acting upon the pepper berries fed between the rotating drum and the stationary concave. A 3 – factor, Factorial Experiment in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with feed rate, drum speed and surface condition as factors was adopted. The maximum overall decorticating efficiency was observed at the feed rate of 12 kg/h and drum speed of 20 rpm for both the surface types. The maximum decorticating efficiency observed for coir-mat was 91.5 and that observed for rubber surface was 94.2. The effectiveness of wholeness of kernels was found to show lower values for the highest speed of 25 rpm due to the crushing of berries. The maximum overall decorticating efficiency recorded for coir – mat was 87.7 per cent and that recorded for rubber sheet was 90.3 per cent. The study showed that the parameters of feed rate, drum speed, and surface type, have significant influenz on decorticating efficiency, effectiveness of wholeness of kernals and overall decorticating efficiency.
Open Access
Evaluation and modification of spike-tooth and rasp-bar type paddy threshers
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1993) Sailaja, L; KAU; Sivaswami, M
The field survey conducted on the threshing practices of paddy in Kerala revealed that the hand beating method which is more common in southern part of Kerala needed 154.7 man h/ha with an average output of 18.5 kg/man h requiring an amount of Rs. 823.5/ha whereas, in central Kerala the feet rubbing method required Rs. 1599.0/ha and needed only319.8 man h/ha with an average output of 11.27 kg/man h. The 8 hp axial flow spike-tooth type and 10 hp flow through rasp-bar type threshers were evaluated and found an average output of 50 kg/hp h and 107 kg/hp h respectively. The maximum threshing efficiency of 98.77 per cent and 97.44 per cent were recorded for the flow through rasp-bar thresher during ‘virippu’ and ‘mundakan’ seasons compared to only 95.50 per cent and 94.49 per cent respectively for spike-tooth thresher. The high moist and long paddy crops used to stick and choke in between cylinder and concave clearance and hence the concave was successfully improved to eliminate these problems. The improved concave also improved the output to 1081 kg/h and 1122.6 kg/h with an increase of 9.25 per cent and 4.27 per cent respectively during ‘virippu’ and ‘mundakan’ seasons. A maximum output of 305.7 kg/hp h was obtained for the 1 hp prototype thresher with the rasp-bar cylinder compared to the output of 256.5 kg/hp h for spike tooth cylinder. The cost of operation for the commercially available axial flow through rasp-bar threshers was found to be Rs. 400/ ha and Rs. 207/ ha respectively. The rasp-bar thresher with improved concave could save an amount of Rs. 616.5/ha which accounted to a net saving of 74.9 per cent in the cost of threshing compared to the hand beating method.
Open Access
Development and testing of a manually operated paddy dibbler
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1992) Bini Sam; KAU; Sankaranarayanan, M R
A manually operated three row paddy dibbler for dry sowing was developed and tested at Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur. The metering mechanism employed in this dibbler was unique in design. The machine consists of seed box, roller with metering mechanism, seed tube with furrow opener, frame, handles and marker. When the dibbler was operated for dibbling, the roller passing vertically through the centre of box would move upward by the soil pressure against the spring pressure. As the roller moved upward, the portion of the roller having the vertical slot would come in contact with seeds and the seeds were moved and carried to this slot. When the equipment was taken out from the soil, the soil pressure on the roller was released and due to the spring pressure the roller moved downward and the seeds carried in the slot were released and would fall through the seed tube by gravity in to the soil. During the operation of the equipment due to the downward travel of the roller and seed tube the seed hole was created for dropping the seeds. The covering of seeds with soil was carried out automatically when the equipment was taken out from the soil. The number of seeds dropped was in the range of 4 to 6 per hill. The area covered by the dibbler was 0.022 hectare per hour. The field efficiency obtained was 68.68 per cent. The mechanical damage was 4.84 per cent. The percentage losses of seeds after germination was 9.52. The fabrication cost of the dibbler including cost of material was Rs. 800/-. The operating cost of the dibbler was Rs. 16/- per hour. The cost of sowing one hectare of land was Rs. 717/- while for manual dibbling the cost of sowing was Rs. 979/- per hectare. Moreover manual dibbling is done in a bending position which is arduous to the farmer. But in the present design of dibbler, a suitable handle is provided which ensure easy and comfortable operation in a straight posture. The equipment can be fabricated locally with readily available materials and can be easily maintained by small farmers.
Open Access
Development and testing of a large diameter pit digger for laterite terrain
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1996) Preman, P S; KAU; Jippu, Jacob
A large diameter pit digger was developed as an attachment to tractor for making large size pits in laterite suitable for planting saplings of trees especially for coconut palms. It was tested and evaluated at the Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engg. & Tech., Tavanur. The pit digger mainly consisted of a tractor rear-mounted twin-blade laterite cutter. The twin-blade laterite cutter essentially consisted of two circular blades, a main shaft, two cast iron hubs, two bearings and bearing blocks, power transmission elements, a main frame, two protective shields and one stopper. A 3 phase, 3-hp electric motor of 1440 rpm at a speed at a speed ratio of 2.1:1 was used for rotating the blades. By using a jib crane twin-blade laterite cutter was hitched to the three point hitch system of a tractor. Pit having approximately a square-horizontal cross-section and stepped or rebated downwards in four steps was made in laterite. Size of pit obtained was 1290 x 1190 mm at the top and 830 x 623 mm at the bottom with a total depth of 900 mm. The volume of pit was 0.914 m3. The capacity of machine was 2.24 pits of 0.914 m3 in a day of 8 h. For making a pit of 0.914 m3, the total electrical energy consumption was 4.111 kWh and the diesel fuel consumed by tractor was 18.5 L. The cost of digger excluding cost of motor, jib crane and tractor was Rs. 3800. The operating cost of the digger was Rs. 140.61 per hour and the cost of making one pit was Rs. 453.23. After taking in to account of the cost recovered due to the 41 laterite blocks obtained while making the pit, the net cost of making a pit was Rs. 207.12.

Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

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