“ASSESSMENT OF LOSSES AND ENERGY REQUIREMENT IN DIFFERENT POST HARVEST OPERATIONS OF CHICKPEA”
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Date
2005
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Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.)
Abstract
The chickpea crop undergoes a series of operations during harvest and post harvest operations. The losses do occur at different stages of harvest and post harvest operations in the chickpea crop. Also energy is a major factor that affects the economics and productivity of the food grains. For increasing the productivity of the crop, the losses and the energy consumption should be minimized. The knowledge about physical and engineering properties like size and shape, bulk and true densities, angle of repose etc of any bio material is essential to design equipment for planting, harvesting, transportation, storage and processing of the seeds/ grains. All these physical and engineering properties of biomaterials have been reported to be affected with the variation in moisture level. In the present investigation, assessment of harvest and post harvest losses and energy required in different harvest and post harvest operations was carried out. In addition to this, effect of moisture content on physical properties of chickpea was studied. Losses were assessed in the selected chickpea field at different stages of operations such as pre harvest, harvesting, heaping, bundling, transportation, threshing and winnowing. The losses were tabulated and the total loss percentage was calculated. The information pertaining to the amount of energy inputs from different energy sources such as human, animal, machinery, fuels etc. were recorded at different stages of their applications. The energy input in the post harvest operations was calculated in Mega Joules per hectare using the standard energy coefficients. Experiments for physical properties were conducted at five different moisture levels ranging from 7.9 to 32.5 per cent (wb). Determination of physical/ engineering properties was accomplished by using standard techniques. Harvesting, transportation and threshing losses of chickpea were predominant and total loss was estimated as 8.687 per cent. Threshing consumed the highest amount of energy as 266.05 MJ/ha while the drying operation claimed the least energy as 1.63 MJ/ha. Diesel contributed the highest amount of energy as 211.16 MJ/ha for farm operations other than conveyance whereas contribution of human energy was about eleven times higher than the animal energy for conveyance
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operation of equal distance. The length, width, thickness, sphericity, volume, hundred seeds weight, porosity, filling and emptying angle of repose of chickpea seeds increased from 7.93 to 8.77 mm, 5.70 to 6.64 mm, 5.59 to 6.68 mm, 0.7974 to 0.8326, 125.313 to 184.276 mm3, 16.420 to 22.455 g, 46.086 to 49.110 per cent, 26.58 to 32.76 and 34.02 to 38.85 respectively in the moisture content range from 7.9 to 32.5 per cent (wb). The coefficient of external friction of chickpea seeds increased from 0.5238 to 0.6232 for iron, 0.5193 to 0.60247 for plywood, 0.3800 to 0.5068 for galvanized iron, 0.3290 to 0.4653 for aluminum and 0.2511 to 0.4570 for glass, while internal friction increased from 0.8180 to 0.9463 in the foresaid moisture range. Bulk and true densities of chickpea seeds decreased from 706.5 to 621.0 kg/m3 and 1310.3 to 1220.3 kg/m3 in the experimental moisture range. Through the percentage distribution curves chickpea seeds at initial moisture content (7.9 per cent) showed that 92 per cent of the seeds fell in the length range of 7.23 to 8.90 mm, 94 percent seeds had a width from 5.13 mm to 6.38 mm and 92 per cent seeds had a thickness from 5.13 mm to 5.96 mm.
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Keywords
ASSESSMENT, LOSSES, ENERGY REQUIREMENT, DIFFERENT POST HARVEST OPERATIONS, CHICKPEA
Citation
107p.