DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF POLLINATOR FOR GREENHOUSE
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Date
2019
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DIVISION OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING ICAR–INDIAN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE NEW DELHI
Abstract
Greenhouse technology has been accepted worldwide to produce quality products and
enhance productivity. Greenhouse technology is popular for production of off-season
vegetable and fruits. One of the major crops cultivated in greenhouses is tomato.
Pollination of tomato crop in greenhouses is critical to enhance the production and
productivity. Greenhouse provides desired climatic condition for tomato crop but at the
same time has obstacles for natural pollinators. Hence, in large greenhouses bumble
bee are used for pollination of tomatoes. But they have a constraint of damaging the
stigma of flower in small greenhouses. So, other methods of pollination namely hand
pollination, pollination with vibrating wand, pollination with blower and electric brush
are practiced in the greenhouses. All these methods are time consuming and require
human labour. So, with the objective of providing device for effective pollination, a
pollinator for greenhouse tomatoes was developed. The pollinator was designed on the
principal of pulsating air jet for tomato flowers vibration for pollination. The
performance of developed pollinator was studied under varying combinations of Air
flow rates, Pulsation frequencies of air and Exposure times. The performance was
compared with other methods of pollination practiced in the greenhouses.
The effects of Air flow rates, AFR (1, 1.5 and 2 m3/min), Pulsation frequencies
of air, PFA (16, 20 and 24 Hz) and Exposure times, ET (10, 15 and 20 seconds) on
pollination efficiency and yield were studied. The regression equations of Pollination
efficiency (PE) and yield as functions of AFR, PFA and ET were obtained using Box
Behnken Design of Response Surface Methodology. The optimum solution for highest
PE (83.66%) was at 1.99 m3/min of AFR, 23.50 Hz of PFA and ET of 19.40 seconds.
Pollination efficiency was higher (83.67%) in developed pollinator at optimal solution
of AFR, PF and ET as compared to manual hand pollination, pollination by blower and
untreated plot with PE of 79.48%,64.82% and 50.93%, respectively. Similarly,
optimum solution for highest Yield (19.52 kg per no of flowers selected in 5 m2 plot)
was at 1.99 m3/min of AFR, 22.25 Hz of PFA and exposure time of 15.78 seconds. The
yield was higher with developed pollinator at optimal solution of AFR, PF and ET
compared to manual hand pollination, pollination by blower and untreated plot which
had yield of 19.54, 14.29 and 9.97 kg per no of flowers selected in 5 m2
plot respectively.
Total cost of developed pollinator is Rs. 14607 with operational cost of Rs. 78.65per
hour. The cost economic analysis infers the payback period of 2.2 years with annual
use of 74.14 hour.
Key words: Pollinator, Tomato pollinator, Greenhouse tomato pollination, Mechanical
pollinator, Blower, Pulsating air jet
Description
t-10097
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