by

Engr. Alexis T. Belonio, MS

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineer
ASEAN Engineer

AGRICULTURAL POWER AND ENERGY SOURCES

Disclaimer

Photos , illustrations and schematic diagrams of equipment or machine parts are shown in the
presentation solely for educational purposes to facilitate comprehension of the topics by the
students. Showing them does not endorse a product nor imply criticism of similar products not
mentioned.

1
 INTRODUCTION

• Human power has been utilized as source of power since time

immemorial.
• Before the mechanization, human power is utilized in various farm
works such as land preparation, seeding and planting, harvesting, and
other processing operations.
• At present, human power is utilized in several regions where labor is
sufficient and mechanization is not fully emphasized.
• By definition, human power is the work or energy produced from
the human body. It is the rate of work done by human per unit time. It
comes primarily from human muscles.

POWER OUTPUT AND ENERGY REQUIREMENT

• Human can develop a total power of

0.5 hp from the food he eats.
• Of this total power, 0.1 hp is available
for useful work and the remaining is
used for body functions.
• A man can generate 15% more power
when he is younger at 20 years of
age, and 20% less when he gets older
at 60 years of age.
• Man muscles can provide an overload
power of approximately 0.6 hp-min.
• Man can generate about 0.27 to 0.53
hp useful power by pedaling.

2
• Minimum energy requirement is 2000 cal per day.
• Conversion efficiency is 25%.
• Working efficiency is high under normal atmospheric condition but
decreases under hot and humid climate.

Advantage and Disadvantages

• Intelligence
– Decision making
– Manual dexterity
• Low power available
– can not compete with animals
– not comparable with engine as a source of
power
– not suitable as power source for repetitive
tasks

HUMAN POWER APPLICATIONS

• Plowing and harrowing using

draft animals
• Operating agricultural
machines, such as tractors and
self-propelled machines
• Seeding and planting operations
• Spraying and weeding tasks
• Harvesting using sickles
• Cleaning of grains
• Operating threshers and
shellers
• Sundrying of Crops
• Handling of crops

3
• Operating rice mills and other
processing equipment inside the
plant
• Operating pumps, irrigation
equipment and structures
• Feeding farm animals
• Manual Pressing of Oil
• Grinding corn
• Pressing sugar cane to produce
juice
• Water pumping for domestic
water supply and for crop
irrigation
• Milling rice using mortar and
pestle
• Pedal threshing

Human Power Consumption for Various Farming

Activities

Activity Gross Power (Watts)

Clearing bush and scrub 400 – 600
Felling trees 600
Hoeing 300-500
Ridging, deep digging 400-1000
Planting 200-300
Plowing with animal draft 350-550
Driving single-axle tractors 350-650
Driving 4-wheel tractor 150-350
Driving car on farm 150

4
Some Field Operation Rates by Farmers Using Hand-Tools

Operation Average Human Work Rate

(Man-days/ha)
Land Clearing 32.6
Ridging for Cassava 43.8
Mound Making for Yam 57.8
Cassava Planting 28.3
Yam Planting 28.3
Weeding Root Crops 36.7
Weeding, general 40.0
Cassava Harvesting 28.5
Yam Harvesting 32.0

5
 Man-Hour Requirement per Hectare of Various
Agricultural Operations

Operation Persons-hr/ha
Tillage with hoe 100-300
Water buffalo plowing flooded soil 30 – 60
Water buffalo comb harrowing 40 – 60
5-hp power tiller plowing wet soil 20 –40
10-hp hydro tiller 4.4
Broadcasting 3.3
Hand weeding transplanted rice 120 - 320
Harvesting rice with sickle 60 –80
5-hp IRRI axial-flow thresher, 4 men feeding 350 – 700 kg/hr

6
 POWER FORMULA

(1) Power (2) Rest Period

Pg = 0.35 – 0.092 log t Tr = 60 ( 1 – 250 / P )

where: where:

Pg - generated power, Tr - required rest period,

Hp min/hr
t - time, min P - actual rate of energy
consumption, watts

A person is asked to do water pumping

for 4 hours. Compute the power that
can be generated by the person.

Given: t – 4 hours

Required: power generated

Solution:
Pg = 0.35 – 0.092 log ( 4 hr x 60 min/hr)
= 0.35 – 0.092 log (240 min)
= 0.13 hp

7
Find the rest period of a person doing
manual ridging with gross power of 500
watts. If he works for 4 hours, determine
the total time of rest needed by the
person.

Given:
Operation - manual ridging
Gross power - 500 watts
Total Work period - 4 hours

Required: Rest period in min/hr and total rest period in min

Solution:
Tr = 60 (1-250/P)
= 60 (1-250 / 500 watts)
= 30 min per every hour of work

Number of Persons Needed

No. of Persons = Man-hour per ha x No. of Hectares (ha)

x Operating time (hr)

Time to Finish Work

Time (hr) = No. of Persons / [Man-hour per ha

x No. of hectares (ha)]

Area Covered

No. of Hectares (ha) = No. of Persons / [Man-hour per ha

x Operating Time (hr)]

8
A ten-hectare farm is to be planted with
mongo by broadcasting. The owner of the
farm wishes that the planting be finished
within one day (8 hrs per day). How many
people would be required to do the job?

Given:
Area of the farm- 10 hectares
Operating Time - one day @ 8 hours

Required:
No. of persons to employ
Solution:
No. of person = 3.3 person-hr/ha x 10 ha / 8 hr
= 4.1 persons use, 5 person

There are 50 persons employed in

harvesting rice. They will be harvesting
from a 2-hectare rice farm. If they start
harvesting at 8 o’clock in the morning, at
what time would they be able to finish?

Given:
No. of persons - 50
Area to be harvested - 2 hectares
Time started - 8 am
Required:
Time to end harvesting
Solution :
No. of Hours = 60 man-hour/ha x 2 ha / 50 man
= 2.2 hrs
Time to finish harvesting is 10:12 AM

9
 HUMAN-POWERED TOOLS AND MACHINES
• A machine is a device or a mechanical contrivance consisting of two or
more relatively constrained components which is energized by a power
source to transmit and/or modify force and motion to accomplish some
desired kind of work.
• Tool is a human-powered instrument or implement usually without parts
that move relative to one another like hoe, dibbler. It is used to facilitate
mechanical manual operation.
• Classifications of Tools and Manually-Operated Machines
(1) Hand Tools for Land Preparation – These include hoe which is
commonly used for primary and secondary tillage during land
preparation, machete/spade, etc. for land clearing and other crop
production operations.
(2) Manual Planting Tools and Machines – These include hoes for
ridging, bedding, manual planter like dibblers, jab planter, seed drill,
and others.

(3) Manual Weeding Tools and Machines – These include hoes, rotary
hoes and wheeled-cultivators, slashers, etc.
(4) Manual Harvesting Tools and Machines – These include hoes,
diggers and lifters, sickles, scythes, and harvesting hooks.

10
 Coconut Grater Sugar Cane Press
Pedal Thresher

Mortar and Pestle

Water Pump Seeder

Corn Mill Dibbler Oil Mill

11
 REFERENCES

• Campbell, J. K. 1990. Dibble Sticks, Donkey, and Diesels. Machines

in Crop Production. The International Rice Research Institute, Los
Banos, Laguna. 329pp.
• CIGR. Plant Production Engineering. Volume III. CIGR Handbook of
Agricultural Engineering. American Society of Agricultural Engineer.
USA. pp. 1-22.
• Human Power. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_power
• Johnson, L. Power Requirements in Rice production. The
International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Laguna. 29pp.
• Stout, B.A.(ed). Plant Production Engineering. CGIR Handbook of
Agricultural Engineering. Volume III. ASAE.

12