Design, development and evaluation of carrot digger
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Date
2015
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Publisher
CCSHAU
Abstract
India is the second largest producer of vegetables next to China. India ranks 14th in production
of carrot (Dacus Carota L.), among more than 125 countries those cultivating this vegetable. The major
carrot growing states in India are Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and
Haryana. In India, the cultivated area of carrot in 2013-14 was 62.41 thousand ha with production of
1073.71 thousand tonnes and in Haryana, it was 17.86 thousand ha with production of 276.81 thousand
tonnes. Harvesting is a most critical operation in carrot cultivation because it requires 350 – 450 manhours
for digging and pulling out one hectare area which is very costly, tedious and time consuming for
farmers. Thus, this study was undertaken to design, develop and evaluate a tractor operated carrot
digger. The carrot digger consisted of digging unit, conveying unit, de-topping unit, collecting unit,
main frame and power transmission system. The forward speed was taken constant, 0.75 m s-1. Power
was transmitted from tractor PTO to conveying and de-topping unit through chain sprocket system,
universal shafts, gear box and bevel gears. The overall transmission ratio was 3.6. The transmission
ratio of gear box and bevel gears was 1.8 and 2, respectively. Sweep type blade was used for digging
the carrots and two triple pitch roller chains rotating in opposite direction were used to catch the leaves
of carrots digged by the blade. De-topping of carrots was done by the two serrated discs rotating in
opposite direction, provided below the conveying unit. Crates were used for colleting the de–topped
carrots. It was evaluated under the operating parameters: three blade angle (150, 180, 210), three
conveyor angle (250, 350, 450) and three catch height (2, 4, 6 cm). The optimum parameters obtained
for carrot digger were blade angle 210, conveyor angle 250 and catch height 2 cm. The digging
efficiency, cut carrots, bruised carrots, picking efficiency and cutting efficiency of de-topping unit were
100 %, 0.62 %, 0.90 %, 61.56 % and 100 %, respectively.
Effective field capacity of the digger was 0.11 ha h-1 with field efficiency of 61.70 %. The
through output capacity was 1750 kg h-1. The labour requirement in man-h ha-1 with digger and manual
harvesting was 27.27 and 450, respectively. The cost of operation was Rs 8241.82 ha-1 with John Deree
5204 tractor. The draft recorded was 570 kgf. It can be operated with 35 horse power tractor. It saved
time and cost of operation 63.36 and 94 per cent, respectively in comparison to manual method of
harvesting. The break-even point was146.5 hours, this was 36.63 % of the annual utility. The payback
period was 2.21 years. The benefit cost ratio was 1.56.
Description
Keywords
Inbreeding, Planting, Maize, Inbreeding depression, Organ culture, Growth inhibitors, Yields, Grain, Genotypes, hybrids