| Author | Amjad, Nadeem |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no. AE-82-11 |
| Subject(s) | Harvesting machinery
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The vertical conveyor type Chinese designed cereal reaper (JIN FENG K4G-l.6) was tested for field performance and economic evaluation on a
Thailand rice variety RD-7 (easy to shatter at maturity). By having 3 variations of gear combinations (combination I:- low 3rd gear and slow cutterbar
speed; combination II:- low 3rd gear and fast cutterbar speed, and combination III:- high 1st great and fast cutterbar speed), 2 variations of crop planting
methods (transplant and broadcast), 3 variations of cropping densities (20 x 20, 20 x 30 and 20 x 40 cm) and three variations of crop harvesting stages (at maturity, 7 days and 14 days after maturity); the results and analysis showed that the reaper worked best with gear combination III, at which the effective field capacity of the reaper was measured to be 0.47 ha/hr with a field efficiency of 69.80% and fuel consumption of 3.32 litres/ha, For
this gear combination, the average total harvesting loss (excluding transportation) increased linearly with time, being 2,72%, 4.74% and 8.93% at maturity, 7 days after and 14 days after respectively with the normal density (20 x 20 cm transplanted), and decreased with cropping density being 2,72%, 3.50% and 5.86% for the three density varied transplanted crop respectively at maturity. The loss percentage for the broadcasted crop was not found statistically
different than the normal density transplanted crop. A comparative field study was also undertaken between machine and hand reaping systems, For harvesting the normal density transplanted crop at maturity and about a week delayed, the machine and hand reaping systems resulted in the loss of 4.05% (gear combination II) and 4 . 69% (gear combination III); compared to 2.83% and 4.23% by hand respectively. The labor requirement for harvesting one hectare by hand (including gathering, bundling and transporting the crop to harvest field corner) was about 137 man-hours and by machine
was about 36 man-hours, thus the labor requirement for the machine was reduced by about 74% compared to the conventional sickle reaping method. The harvesting
output of a woman laborer on average was measured to be 0.008 ha/hr. At present
wage levels in Thailand, machine reaping has a break even point at 8.62 hectares
and 4.31 hectares for single and double cropping per year respectively. Modifications were recommended to improve the reaper performance,
On the whole, the machine performed well and is recommended to be adapted
by the local farmers . |
| Year | 1982 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development |
| 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) | Gee-Clough, D.
; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Singh, Gajendra ;Koike, Masayuki
; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Government of Australia; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1982 |