| Author | Bora, Ganesh Chandra |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no. AE-97-4 |
| Subject(s) | Tractors--Equipment and supplies
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Pineapple cultivation is labour intensive. Pineapple plant dressing is still done
manually. It is a tiresome and back breaking job. Due to industrialization, the labour force is
declining from the agricultural sector in Thailand. To remain as the largest producer of
pineapple in the world, Thailand has to mechanize a number of pineapple cultivation
operations. In this study, an attempt was made to develop a pineapple plant dressing machine
for mounting at the front of a tractor with the concept of dressing the plant top material by
rotating circular saw blades. Four blades, arranged in rows, were used with a specially
designed power transmission system at the front of the tractor. The cutting width can be
adjusted to cater the variation of row to row distance in different plantations.
The developed machine was tested in actual field conditions. The machine worked
satisfactorily with an average effective field capacity of 0.45 ha/hr. It can replace 22.5
mandays with an average field efficiency of about 80 per cent and an average cutting
efficiency of 95 per cent. The fuel consumption was recorded to be 2.68 liter an hour and
would need about 6 liter of fuel to cover a hectare of plantation. The economic analysis
indicated that its operation would need 155 Baht an hour or 344 Baht for a hectare of
plantation as against 812 Baht per hectare for manual dressing. The break-even area for this
machine was found to be 126 hectare in a year. The pay back period for the machine was
calculated to be 3 years. Due to the simplicity of the design it will be possible to fabricate this
machine in local workshops. |
| Year | 1997 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Agricultural and Food Engineering (AE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Salokhe, Vilas M.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Gee-Clough, David ;Hansen, G. K.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Royal Government of Netherlands ; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1997 |