Introduction

India is a country where agriculture gives many advantages and benefits especially to the
economy, political and social culture. It is also the most important sector of Indian Economy.
According to the 2013 survey agriculture sector accounts for 13.7% of India's gross domestic
product (GDP) and provides employment to large population of people and is still the
main source of income. India is the world’s largest producer of pulses, rice, wheat, spices and
spice products.

Horticulture is also given prime importance as the consumption of vegetable, vegetable oils,
spices are increasing at a faster rate  Oil palm crop is one of the highest oil (palm oil) yielding
crops among the all perennial crops. Oil palm tree produces edible palm-oil as well as palm
kernel-oil. This oil palm is considered as golden palm due to its high yielding capacity. In
India, oil palm crop provides the excellent substitute of importing the oil. In India, oil palm is
cultivated in more than 15 states by covering about 50,000 hectares under irrigated conditions
and this crop also cultivated under rain fed conditions. India, the world's leading vegetable oil
buyer, had imported 6,12,762 tonne palm oil in January 2017.  This value increased by 36.17
per cent to 8,34,444 tonnes in January 2018 . Along with the ready edible palm oil products,
import of CPO increased by 63.23 per cent to 6,72,762 tonnes in January this year from
4,12,140 tonnes in the same period last year. The shipment of crude palm kernel oil (CPKO)
also increased to 11,018 tonne from 3,999 tonne, while that of RBD palmolein declined to
1,50,664 tonne from 1,96,623 tonne in the said period. 

Major Oil Palm Production States in India:-  Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Kerala,
Gujarat, Goa, TamilNadu, Maharashtra, Tripura, West Bengal and some areas of Andaman.

Yield in Oil Palm Cultivation:- Any crop yield depends mainly on the soil type, variety,
climatic conditions and farm management practices.
 During initial period from 4 to 8 years : 10 to 12 tonnes/ha.
 After 8th year: 18 to 20 tonnes/ha.

Cutting equipment is a very important tool required for the proper maintenance of farms.
Maintenance includes crop harvesting, cutting and pruning of branches etc. Size, mode of
operation, and power sources of these equipments vary based on the type and size of farm,
purpose and demographic nature.

Conventional methods available for oil palm harvesting

1. Single Rope and Cutlass (SRC)

2. Double Rope and Cutlass (DRC)
3. Modified Pole and Knife (MPK)
4. Bamboo Pole and Knife (BPK)
5. Aluminium pole and knife (APK)
Problem Statement

India is a country where agriculture gives many advantages and benefits especially to the
economy, political and social culture. Palm fruit is one of the new targets in agriculture where
still not much research is being done. There are some problems arising such as methods of
maximizing the profit, increasing the productivity and cost reduction. One of the important
activities in palm fruit is harvesting and cutting. This operation requires 60% of total labour
and its transportation. Due to increase in wages and reduced in availability of skilled labour
profitability of the crop is being reduced. So the idea is to reduce the dependency on workers
in this process by the introduction of machineries for cutting, pruning and harvesting. This
can increase the overall productivity, reducing expenditure and thereby the profit can be
increased. From that, the main objective for this project is to design and fabricate the
prototype of a cutter mechanism to harvest palm fruits and also other high reach horticultural
crops.

Literature Review
Several criteria’s must be considered in order design and fabricate a proper equipment which
include ease of fabrication, low cost and flexibility to perform several task with minor
adjustments. Manual handle is used to operate the machine and the high shearing blade to the
cut the palm using the palm cutting machine.

This project focuses on design, development, and testing of a cutter to overcome the failure
of the previous implementation. It can operated by unskilled labourers