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Singh Sukhbir, Vatsa DK and Verma MK. 2007. Feasibility and performance
evaluation of power tiller operated reaper in hills of Himachal Pradesh.
Agricultural Engineering Today. Vol...

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 Agricultural Engineering Today Vol. 31(2): 6-10,2007

Feasibility and Performance Evaluation of Power Tiller

Operated Reaper in Hills of Himachal Pradesh

Sukhbir Singh 1, DK Vatsa 2 and MK VermBJ

ABSTRACT
To mechanize the harvesting operation in hills and also to increase the annual use of power tiller
with suitable matching equipment, front mounted NOUAT vertical conveyer reaper having 107 kg
weight and 1.23 m width was tested at university farm as well as farmers' field with 13 hp power
tiller (VST 130 01) for harvesting of wheat crop and compared with conventional method to see the
feasibility. The field capacity of the reaper at the university farm and at farmers' field was observed
0.14 hath and O. ')94 hath, respectively at the forward speed of 1.-/8 kmth and 1.35 kmth with field
efficiency of 64.22% and 56.62%. The total labour requirement including harvesting, collection,
bundle making etc. with the machine was observed 57.14 man-htha and 75.63 man-htha at the
university farm and farmers' field, respectively whereas it was 173.11 man-htha with manual
harvesting by sickle. The harvesting losses were recorded as 5.8 % at the farm and 11.8% at
farmers' field, however, no pre-harvesting losses were reported. The capacity of machine at the
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farm was observed 93% more than the manual harvesting (0.009 hath) and saved 35% cost of
operation with 2 times labour. The capacity of the machine at farmers' field was observed 90%
more as compared to manual system but harvesting losses was also more. The performance of
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the machine in big sized plots was observed good and it was not found feasible for small and
irregular shaped plots of size less than 150 m2 . However, a reaper having less width of coverage
and light in weight will be more useful for smaller and irregular shaped fields as a power tiller
attachment.
Keywords: Hill agriculture, harvesting, reaper

Introduction a number of power tiller operated equipment have

In Himachal Pradesh, wheat crop is cultivated
on about 378.2 thousand hectares which is about
66% of the total cropped area with productivity of
only 15.55 qlha (Anonymous, 2002). Harvesting is
one of the major operations in crop production. The
harvesting of field crops in hill agriculture is mostly
done manually with the help of sickle (S. Sukhbir,
2005). Manual harvesting takes about 170-200
man-hours to harvest crops from one hectare area.
Due to high demand of labour at the time of
harvesting, the entire operation continues for
weeks together resulting in over-drying of crops in
the field resulting in grain losses to the extent of 5-
15%. In addition, drudgery involved in manual
harvesting is also higher. Presently, power tiller is
being used mainly for seed-bed preparation
because of non-availability of suitable matching
implements for hilly areas. Thus, the power tiller
remains idle for most of the time during the year
resulting in increased fixed cost per hour. Although
been developed by the different Centres of the
scheme on FIM but these could not be adopted as
such because of higher size and weight. Moreover,
the feasibility testing of such equipment is required
for making them viable and versatile for hilly areas
particularly for enhancing the annual use of power
tiller. Therefore, to mechanize the harvestin£j
operation in hills and also to increase the annual
use of power tiller with suitable matching equipment,
power tiller operated vertical conveyor reaper, has
been evaluated to see the feasibility in hilly regions.
Material and Methods
Salient features of vertical conveyer reaper:
The NDUAT designed power tiller operated vertical
conveyer reaper (Figure 1) was procured from Mis
Ganga Engineering and Agro Repairing, District
Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh for feasibility testing
in hills. The specifications of vertical conveyer
reaper are given below in Table 1.

'Asstt.Agril. Engineer, 2Agricultural Engineer and 3Technical Assistant G-1, Dep8ltmeni of Agricultural Engineering, CSKHPKV.
Pa/ampur-176062 (HPJ, INDIA, e-mail: srsukhbir@rediffmail.com
 Table 1. Specification of NDUAT vertical conveyor reaper

S. No. Descriptions Details

1. Type of machine Front mounted vertical conveyor reaper
2. Overall dimensions (Lx W x H), mm 1400x1550x560
3. Weight, kg 107.8
4. Width of cut, mm 1230
5. Cut off mechanism Through pulley and belt
6. Power transmission Belt pulley
7. Number of dividers 5
8. Length of cutter bar stroke, mm 76
9. Pressure spring row
10 Cutting device Reciprocating cutter bar
11 Delivery device Lugged belt conveyor
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12 Gathering device Star wheel

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of wheat crop. The field parameters such as speed

of operation, stubble height, effective field capacity,
harvesting losses, field efficiency, fuel consumption,
labour requirement and economics was worked out
as per BIS test code. The economics and
p~rformancewas compared with traditional method
to see the feasibility.

Results and Discussion

Fig. 1: NDUAT power tiller operated reaper
Evaluation Procedure: The preliminary
testing of vertical conveyer reaper was carried out
by mounting it with 13 hp power tiller (VST 130 01)
in the laboratory to check its functional
performance, such as working of cutter bar, cut off
device, gathering & delivery devices, speed of
cutter bar etc. The field performance and
evaluation was carried out at HPKV farm (10m x
48m, rectangular shaped plots) and at farmers' field
(7m x 28m, irregular shaped plots) for harvesting
7
Preliminary testing: During the preliminary
testing it was observed that the power cut off device
was not working satisfactorily and creating problem
in engaging and disengaging the power to the
reaper. The' problem was rectified by modifying
existing (pulley and belt, Figure 2) controls for
actuating the mechanism for engaging and
disengaging of power to the reaper. Now, the control
was done directly with dog clutch system, which
was easy to handle, and ultimately works very well.
The reaper was now ready for field evaluation.
Evaluation at the HPKV farm: The reaper
was evaluated at HPKV farm over an area of 0.50
ha for harvesting of wheat crop and to check its
proper functioning (Fig. 3). The result of the
harvesting of wheat with the vertical conveyer
reaper at HPKV farm has been presented in the
Table 2. The ave:age plant height of wheat crop
was measured as 106.3 cm with row spacing of the
 POWEn CUT.O
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Fig. 2: Existing & Modified power cut-off system of reaper

Table 2: Performance results of the vertical conveyer reaper

Sr. No. Parameters Average value

At HPKV farm At farmers' field
1. Area harvested, ha 0.5 0.08
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2. Variety of the crop VL-B16 Surbhi-89

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3. Ave. grain moisture content at the time of harvest, % wb 10.10 10.2

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4. Ave. plant height, cm 106.3 94.6

5. Row to row spacing, cm 22
6. Ave. plant per meter length, no. 46.33
7. Ave. pianUm 2 255.3 283.6
8. Average stubble height, cm 5.8 5.6
9. Forward speed, Km/h 1.78 1.35
10. Fuel consumption, I/h 1.0 1.10
11. Pre-harvest losses, % Nil Nil
12. Harvesting losses, % 5.8 11.8
13. Effective field capacity, ha/h 0.140 0.094
14. Theoretical field capacity, ha/h 0.218 0.166
15. Field efficiency, % 64.22 56.62
16. Labour requirement for harvesting, man-h/ha 7.14 10.63
17. Labour required for collection and bundle making, man-h/ha 50.0 65.0
18. Total labour required for harvesting, collection and bundle making, 57.14 75.63
man-h/ha
19. Cost of harvesting operation, Rs/ha 728.28 1084.26
20. Cost of collection and bundle making, Rs/ha 583.00 757.90
21. Total cost of harvesting, collection and bundle making, Rs/ha 1311.28 1842.16

8

Fig. 3: Vertical conveyer reaper in operation
crop 22 cm. The average plant population was
recorded as 255.3 plant/m 2 . Five rows were covered
in one pass of the machine. The effective field
capacity of the machine was recorded as 0.14 hat
h at the speed of 1.78 kmth with fuel consumption
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1.0 Ith. The harvesting losses were recorded as
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5.8%, however, no pre-harvesting losses were
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reported. The total cost of operation for harvesting,
collection and bundle making was Rs 1311.28tha.
The reaper performance and operation was
observed good in big plots at HPKV farm.
Evaluation at farmers' field: The feasibility
testing of reaper was also carried out at farmers'
field for harvesting of wheat in the village Rani
Sidhpur and Bhoura in about 0.12 ha area (Table
2). The reaper was tested in the plots sizes of about
7mx28m, irregular shaped. The capacity of the
reaper was observed 0.094 hath with field efficiency
Table 3: Comparison of power tiller NDUAT reaper with conventional method
Sr. No. Parameters
1. Effective field capacity, hath
2. Harvesting losses, %
3. Labour required for harvesting, man-htha
4. Labour required for collection and bundle making etc,
man-htha
5. Total labour required for harvesting, collection and
bundle making etc, man-htha
6. Total cost of operation, Rstha
9
56.62%. To do the harvesting in the field, firstly the
crops at the corners had to cut manually for
operating the reaper. The harvesting loss was
observed 11.8% and this may be due to the problem
of operation in small and irregular plots. The
capacity of machine at farmer's field was observed
33% less as compared to the university farm.
However, the operation of reaper could not be
possible in plots size less than 150m2 and in hills
most of the fields are less than 100 m2 . The reaper
has to take separately with the help of 4-5 persons
to the fields as there are no proper ways to carry
the machine by attaching with the power tiller.
Comparison of machine with traditional
method: The NDUAT vertical conveyer reaper was
also compared with conventional practices and
presented in the Table 3. The effective field
capacity of the reaper was found 93 % more than
the manual harvesting method and can save 35%
of cost of operation and 2 times labour. The field
capacity of machine at farmers' field was observed
90% more but harvesting losses was high than the
manual method.
Conclusions
The performance of the reaper at the farm was
observed satisfactary and the capacity was 93%
more than the manual harvesting method and can
save 35% of cost of operation and 2 times labour.
The machine was not found feasible for small and
irregular shaped plots having size less than 150
m 2 . However, a reaper having less width of
Power tiller Conventional
NDUAT reaper method
(Plain Sickle)
0.140 0.009
5.8 3.8
7.14 111.11
50.0 62.0
57.14 173.11
1311.28 2018.46
 coverage and light in weight will be more useful for
smaller and irregular shaped fields as a power tiller
attachment for hilly region.
References
Anonymous, 2002. Area and production of major
crops. Fertilizer Statistics 111-40 and 48.
Anonymous, 1979. Guide for Estimating Cost of
Farm Machinery Operation. IS: 9164-1979.
Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi.
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10
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Anonymous. 2006. Annual Report. Farm
Implements and Machinery. Department of
Agricultural Engineering, CSKHPKV-Palampur
(H.P.), India.
Singh Sukhbir. 2005. Farm mechanization in
mountains-Problems and Prospects.
Proceedings of 33 rd International Symposium
of "Actual Task on Agricultural Engineering"
held at Agricultural Engineering Department,
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb,
Croatia w.e.f February 21-25,2005; p: 21-36.