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Performance Evaluation of Power-operated Reapers for Harvesting Rice at Farmers’ Field

Md. Ashraful Alam
Farm Machinery and Post-harvest Technology Division, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Gazipur, Bangladesh

Md. Anwar Hossen
Farm Machinery and Post-harvest Technology Division, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Gazipur, Bangladesh

A. K. M. Saiful Islam
Farm Machinery and Post-harvest Technology Division, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Gazipur, Bangladesh

Md. Monjurul Alam
Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Harvesting is one of the major labor intensive works in rice cultivation. Appropriate harvesting machinery is urgently needed to reduce labor and production costs. Production cost of rice becomes high due to labor shortage and high wage rate during harvesting time. Techno-economic performance of Korean self propelled reaper (KR), China self-propelled reaper (CR) and BRRI reaper (BR) were evaluated in order to identify the field constrains and problems of the reapers at Mithapukur of Rangpur, Bangladesh during Aman season of 2013. The actual field capacities of the KR, CR and BR were found 0.18, 0.17 and 0.15 ha h^–1 with the corresponding field efficiency of 55, 68 and 56%, respectively. The variation of field capacity among the models was due to turning time losses, weight of the reaper and operator’s skill. The fuel consumption of the reapers was 4.11, 2.61 and 8.39 l ha^–1 for KR, CR and BR, respectively. The shattering loss of paddy harvesting was 1.66, 1.50 and 1.45% for KR, CR and BR, respectively. The break-even area of the reapers was 9.15, 7.82 and 8.43 ha yr^-1 for KR, CR and BR, respectively. It is evident that the reaper could be used successfully as labor saving and user friendly technology to eliminate post-harvest problems in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Reaper, Paddy, Field capacity, Field efficiency

Location: Mithapukur of Rangpur district

Start Date: 00-08-2013

End Date: 00-12-2013

Program Area: Farm Mechanization

Commodity: Reaper

Objectives:

The objectives of the study were to compare the performance of three different types of reaper, and to identify field constraints and problems under Bangladesh condition.

Methodology:

Experimental site The experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of three different types of reaper at Mithapukur of Rangpur district during Aman season of 2013. Twenty days old seedling of BRRI dhan52 and BRRI dhan49 were transplanted during 25-26 July, 2013 by mechanical rice transplanter. The soil type was sandy loam and soil moisture content ranged from 21.3 to 23.3 % during harvesting. Experimental design and treatment The treatments wereT1= Self-propelled Korean reaper (KR),T2= China reaper (CR) and T3= BRRI reaper (BR). RCB design was followed with three replications. Description of the reapers The Korean self-propelled reaper, China self-propelled reaper and BRRI reaper were used to conduct the study. Manual harvesting was also done for cost comparison. Harvesting was done on 20 November 2013 both manually (using sickle) and mechanically using the selected reapers . Cutting width and height were maintained same for each reaper. BRRI power tiller-operated reaper delivers crop in the left side of the machine, whereas the Korean and China self-propelled reapers deliver crop in the right side of the machine. Experimental procedure Plant height, plant density and soil moisture were measured before harvesting operation with the reaper to control operation speed and cutting height. Soil samples from three different depths (5 cm, 10 cm and 15 cm) were collected to measure the soil moisture. Three small areas (1m × 1m) were selected randomly from each trial plot to determine the plant characteristics, shattering/ pre-harvest and post-harvest losses of paddy for both manual and mechanical harvesting. Plant height was measured from ground level to the end of flag leaf. Harvesting loss (pre-harvest and post-harvest) was measured by marking an area of 1 m² (1m x 1m) in each trial plot with three replications. All the grains lying on the field were picked up carefully from the selected 1 m² area before and after harvesting the paddy. Filled and unfilled grains were also separated to calculate yield of paddy. The collected paddy was cleaned, weighted and added to the pre-harvest and/or post-harvest loss. Moisture content was also measured and weights were adjusted at 14% moisture content. Finally, harvesting loss was calculated based on total loss (pre-harvest and post-harvest losses) to obtain yield of paddy. Missing or remaining tillers after harvesting operation and percentage of damaged hills during operation were counted after harvesting. Operational speed, time of operation and fuel consumption were measured and cost of operation was calculated for both manual and mechanical harvesting. Walking speed was also recorded without any loss to measure the theoretical field capacity of the reaper. Total time of field operation was recorded to measure the actual field capacity of the reaper considering turning loss, operator’s personal loss, machine adjustable loss and troubleshooting loss during field operation. Numbers of grains were recorded from the pre-selected 1 m² areas before and after field operation. The following formulas were used to measure theoretical field capacity, actual field capacity and field efficiency. Theoretical field capacity Theoretical field capacity was measured based on the forward speed and the cutting width of reaper. It was determined using the following formula (Hunt, 1995):

Source of Information: J Bangladesh Agril Univ 16(1): 144–150, 2018 ISSN 1810-3030 (Print) 2408-8684 (Online)

Article Link (Online Journal): doi: 10.3329/jbau.v16i1.36495

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Paddy harvesting is one of the labor intensive and tedious works of rice production. Three studied reaper was found suitable for harvesting Aman paddy in Bangladesh condition. Mechanical harvesting was found beneficial in terms of field capacity, cost of harvesting and human drudgery compared to manual harvesting. Actual field capacity and field efficiency increased with the increase of land size and operator’s skill. It is evident that the reapers could be used successfully for post-harvest operation in Bangladesh with labor saving and elimination of human drudgery problems.

Knowledge Management: Journal