Scope of Battery Operated Harvesters in Indian Agriculture System

Utkarsh Dwivedi1a, Man Mohan Deo2b, Tarun Kumar Maheshwari3c, Bharath Kumar
Komatineni4d, Raushan Kumar5e, Abhishek Mishra6e
a
Research Scholar, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of
Agricultural Engineering and Post-Harvest Technology, Ranipool 737135, Central
Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur 795004, India
b
Scientist, Division of Crop Production, ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur,
Uttar Pradesh 208024, India

Associate Professor, Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar College of Agricultural

c

Engineering and Technology, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and

Technology, Kanpur- 208002,Uttar Pradesh, India
d
M. Tech. Scholar, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of
Agricultural Engineering and Post-Harvest Technology, Ranipool 737135, Central
Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur 795004, India

Research Scholar, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of

e

Technology, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Udham Singh
Nagar- 263153 Uttarakhand, India

Abstract:
Harvesting of crops in India is still done with the help of human labour. However, in some
parts of country, harvesting of rice and wheat is carried out using engine power. Rice and
wheat are the two most important staple foods for the people of the India. Harvesting is one
of the major field operations for food grain crops. Manual harvesting of field crops is
considered a labour intensive operation and takes from cutting to bundle making about 185-
340 man-h/ha for paddy or wheat (Michael A.M., Ojha T.P. 1987). In recent years, various
low cost reapers and Chinese brush cutters were entered in India for rice harvesting
operation. In eastern parts of the country, especially in Bihar, most of the farmers are poor
resourced with small land holdings. The big harvester or combine harvester is neither
accessible to these farmers nor practically feasible due to small and fragmented lands. A
battery-operated walk-behind electric reaper will be used for harvesting cereal crops with
minimal environmental pollution and harvesting cost. Battery operated harvesters might be
the solution to the problems faced by a small scale farmer regarding cost and labour
implementation.
Keywords: Combine harvester, battery operated harvesters, manual harvesting, reaper,
mechanization.
Introduction
Farming is the most widely followed profession in India. Agricultural products contribute a
major portion to our economy. Engineering science has brought tremendous changes in
traditional methods of agriculture viz. sowing, planting, irrigation, fertilizer spraying,
harvesting, etc. However to increase our economic condition, we must increase the
productivity and quality of our farming activities. Nowadays shortage of labours can be
observed in agriculture. Because of this shortage the farmers prefer to use reaper harvesters.
These reapers are costly and only available of very large scale farming. (Bhabad et al.2017).

Mechanization is the replacement of biological sources of energy by mechanical source of

energy in different operations in the production process of output. In agriculture,
mechanization is the introduction of appropriate machinery for timely completion of field
operations and effective application of various crop production inputs. In other words, it
means the introduction of improved tools and implements, tractors, combines, pumps and
other equipment’s at the appropriate level (Sarkar, A. 2020).

In India the farm mechanization stands at about 40%-45%, which is still low when compared
to countries such as the U.S. (95%), Brazil (75%) and China (57%). While the level of
mechanization lags behind other developed countries, it has seen strong growth through the
last decade. The farm power availability on Indian farms has Increased from 1.47 kW/ha in
2005-06 to 2.02 kW/ha in 2013-14 (Anonymous 2014).

Harvesting of crops is one of the essential agricultural processes which demand a

considerable amount of labour. It is generally done manually with sickle, requires 25% of
total labour and 20% of the total cost of operation required for paddy cultivation (Mathur
1990).

Manual harvesting of field crops is considered a labour intensive operation and takes from
cutting to bundle making about 185-340 man-h/ha for paddy or wheat crops and 170-200
man-h/ha for paddy crop. Harvesting of rice crop using reapers has maximum effective field
capacity (Bikash et al., 2016).

Further, the shortage of labour and unexpected weather change are the barriers for timely
harvesting and cause greater loss to the farmers in delaying the harvesting operation. Even for
a week’s delay in harvesting, the loss could be as high as 6%. (Amjad and Gee- Clough
1983).
 Fig 2: Battery Operated Harvesters (Source: Sahoo, A. U., and Raheman, H. (2020)

Gandhewar et al. (2015) developed manual mini paddy harvester, which had two parts i.e., a
battery charging unit with a peddling mechanism and a motor & blade assembly for cutting
purposes. The first part consists of a peddling mechanism, in which the kinetic energy of the
worker was transferred through the peddling mechanism from sprocket to shaft with the help
of chain drive. The shaft starts rotating on which the flywheels were mounted and another
sprocket also starts rotating, which was connected to the bicycle wheel with the help of chain
drive, so that wheel also starts rotating. After that kinetic energy of the wheel was supplied to
the alternator through a belt drive. Due to the alternator's shaft rotation, an electric current
was produced, which charge the battery. The circular blade or cutter was mounted on the
shaft of DC motor. As the electric current is provided to the battery, the cutter mounted on
the shaft of the motor starts rotating and used to cut the paddy crops. Human-powered mini
paddy harvester was efficient as compared to modern harvesters.

Verma (2016) developed an electric VCR with a cutting width of 35 cm. He used two DC
motors, one for cutting and another for conveying the machine. But this cutting width would
only cover either two rows of paddy if row to- row spacing is 15 cm or only one row if row-
to-row spacing is 20 cm. This would reduce the field capacity of the reaper and would waste
power.
Kiran et al. (2017) had developed a battery-operated reaper with a working width of 60 cm.
The reaper consisted of a cutting unit, conveying unit, propelling unit and power supply unit.
DC motor of 1100 W, 48 V DC and four 12 V rechargeable batteries were used to operate the
reaper. But they only operated the machine for 4 min in a paddy field and evaluated the
reaper's performance and reported a field capacity of 0.13 ha/h at a forward speed of 2.17
km/h. However, field testing of this reaper is required for a longer duration of time to obtain
reliable data. Moreover, using a single motor for forward movement of the reaper and cutting
paddy crop needs a complicated transmission system as the knife’s forward speed and cutting
speed of the knife for cutting paddy crop are different.

Gadhave et al. (2017) this machine targets the small scale farmers who have land area of less
than 2 acres. This machine is compact and can cut up to two rows of wheat crops. It has
cutting blades which cut the crop in a scissoring type of motion. It runs on Electric motor of
1HP, this power from motor, is provided through pulley and gear box arrangement to the
cutter. A collecting mechanism is provided for the collection of crops to one side after
cutting. This mechanism is powered by pulley arrangement. This compact harvester is
manufactured using locally available spare parts and thus, it is easily maintainable. This
harvester might be the solution to the problems faced by a small scale farmer regarding cost
and labour implementation. After testing this machine in farm it is found that the cost of
harvesting using this harvester is considerably less as compare to manual harvesting.

Pathak et al. (2017) represents the project work carried on development of solar power crop
cutter. We have developed a compact mechanism for harvesting of crop cutter work on solar
power so that we can easily harvest in minimum period of time. This set up is used to cut the
multi-crops at a time, which help the small scale farmers. This cutter is been invented
because of low cost, high compatibility, and use for rough use. This set up uses the solar
power, which is provided with different blades, solar plate, rubber wheel, DC motor and
battery arrangement which results in transmission of this solar power into rotary motion of
cutter at the end of which the crops get cut easily and perform various task as per
requirement. We have made changes in the existing machine to make its application easier at
reduced cost. Our main aim in Cost and pollution control is attained through this Project
work.

Arjya and Hifjur (2020) A standard cutter bar with a total cutting width of 600 mm was used
as the cutting unit. DC motors with controllers powered by batteries were used to operate the
knife and propel the e reaper fitted with 4.00–8 pneumatic wheels. The total weight of the e-
reaper was 135 kg. The reaper could cut paddy crop satisfactorily at a stubble height varying
from 50 to 80 mm and conveyed it to fall in a windrow. The field capacity of the electric
reaper at an average forward speed of 1 km/h was found to be 0.06 ha/h with a cutting
efficiency of 98% and a field efficiency of 66%. The total power consumed by the e-reaper in
carrying out harvesting operation was found to be 872 W. The reaper was operated
continuously for 2 h without any power breakdown. For recharging all the batteries, a total
time period of 2 h was required. Noise and vibration produced by the electric reaper during
harvesting of paddy crops were measured to be 9.9 m/ s2 and 88 dB(A), respectively. It
required three labours to cover one hectare with a total cost of harvesting as Rs. 2933(41
USD). Thus, it saved about Rs. 5161 (72.25 USD) per hectare as compared to manual
harvesting.

Shivani and Milani (2020) Reaper was developed to solve the problem of drudgery related to
manual harvesting methods, which can saves a lot of time of the farmers and also get the job
done in fewer amount compared to manual harvesting methods. The performance evaluation
was done on the basis of field capacity, field efficiency and cost of operation. The result
showed an increase in the field capacity with the Reaper as compared to manual harvesting.
The field capacity obtained with the Reaper is 0.0152 ha/h while in manual harvesting field
capacity is calculated as 0.011 ha/h. Energy consumption by manual harvesting is about
534.84 MJ/ha whereas with the reaper it is reduced up to 386 MJ/ha. In this sequence cost of
operation calculated by manual harvesting methods is 6665.45 Rs/ha whereas with reaper it is
reduced to 5836.84 RS/ha.

Components Used for Battery Operated Harvesters

I. Electrical motors
The harvester will be powered by motor 1 to drive the ground wheels. The operation
of cutting blades and power for conveying crop will be a single unit which will get
power through motor 2 individually. Power to these motors will be supplied by
suitable batteries.

Fig 1: Electric Motor (Source: Kiran, I. K. M. 2017)

Types of Electric Motors
There are various types of motors which can be used for harvesters:
a) Brushless DC Motor (BLDC)
These motors are the technically advanced versions of DC series motors. They don’t
use brushes and commutators. Instead, permanent magnets are used. BLDCs have
high starting torque, high efficiency and low maintenance. BLDCs are widely used
these days either as the hub motor or belt-driven.
b) Hub Motor
The hub motor (also called wheel motor, wheel hub drive, hub motor or in-wheel
motor) is an electric motor that is incorporated into the hub of a wheel and drives it
directly.
c) Geared DC Motor
 A geared motor is a component whose mechanism adjusts the speed of the motor,
leading them to operate at a certain speed. Geared motor have the ability to deliver
high torque at low speeds, as the gearhead functions as a torque multiplier and can
allow small motors to generate higher speeds. A geared motor can also be defined as a
gear reducer because essentially, it is a combination of a speed reducer with a motor
typically functioning as a gearbox, to reduce speed making more torque available
II. Motor controller
To Control the motors a motor controller is needed. Motor controller receives signals
from the throttle/accelerator and eventually, it transmits the converted signal to the
motors. The function of motor controller is to provide appropriate power to the motor
according to the given input from throttle by operator.

Fig 2: Motor Controller (Source: Kiran, I. K. M. 2017)

III. Batteries
A battery is an energy source consisting of one or more electrochemical cells and
terminals on both ends called an anode (-) and a cathode (+). Electrochemical cells
transform chemical energy into electrical energy. Inside the battery is an electrolyte,
often consisting of soluble salts or acids, it serves as a conductive medium, allowing
the electric charge to travel through the battery.

Fig 3: Motor Controller (Source: Kiran, I. K. M. 2017)

Power transmission system

The DC motors of the Battery Operated Harvester are operated by lead–acid batteries. Power
from the DC motor (800 W, 48 V) was transmitted to the header shaft through chain and
sprocket arrangement, which made the knife to reciprocate and rotate the conveyer shaft. The
conveyer shaft powered the lower and upper conveyer chain and thus transmitting motion to
the star wheels attached to the crop dividers. Pressure springs were fitted below the star
wheels and between the conveying platforms to keep the cut crop in the upright position
during conveying the cut crop to one side of the reaper. For the propelling unit, power was
transmitted from the DC motor (350 W, 24 V) to the wheels through belt and pulley followed
by a worm gear box. The speed from the motor was reduced at 2:1 ratio in the belt and pulley
arrangement, and 7.5:1 ratio in the worm gear arrangement. Dog clutches were provided in
the wheel shaft to engage and disengage power from the DC motor to the wheels to facilitate
easy turning. The schematic diagram for the power transmission system of the e-reaper is
given in Fig4: (Sahoo, A.U.and Raheman, H. 2020)

Advantages:
Fig4: Power transmission system for Battery Operated Harvesters (Source: Sahoo, A.U.and Raheman, H.
2020)

1. Light weight
2. Less vibration
3. Less Noise
 4. Low maintenance cost.
5. Energy efficient system.
6. It can be easily operated by any operator.
7. Less wear and tear as min moving parts.
8. Operating cost is very less if compared with fuel operated machinery.
Disadvantages:
1. Initial cost is high.
2. Less durable.
3. Less energy efficient.
4. Required frequently charging.
5. Also occurs heating problem.
6. Accessibility of repair and maintenance is major hurdle.
7. Need to change batteries after a period of time.
8. Difficulty in torque management.

Conclusion

Traditional methods are time consuming, labour intensive, and difficult to maintain harvesting on
time, as the harvesting of crops are generally done with the help of sickle and other tools. The
shape and size of the sickle varies with the region. In most places farmers are using engine
powered reapers. Different types of reapers are available with different size, cutting mechanism
and type of propelling. These reapers require fuel which is expensive. Further these machines are
subjected to wear and tear due to continuous friction between moving parts of engine and
transmission system. It also required timely repair and maintenance and it releases harmful gases
which pollutes the environment.

To eliminate the above challenges, in order to achieve the need for better performance of the
operator under the given constraints, the drudgery of grains harvesting, manual efforts, fuel
consumption, repair and maintenance of engine and money of farmers can be saved and cost of
operation will be reduced by best substitute for harvesting machinery by using electric reapers.
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