Abstract:
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.
