• The important pre-harvest activities that determine the yield

as well as quality of the final produce obtained from a crop

are given below:
• 1. Selection of appropriate crop and its variety for
cultivation. The selection of appropriate crop should be
made keeping in mind the various factors such as nature of
soil, environmental conditions, irrigation facilities etc.

• 2. Use of high quality seeds and healthy saplings.

• . Treatment of seeds before sowing. This is necessary to
prevent seed-borne diseases in the plants.
• 4. Proper preparation of soil for sowing.
• 5. Choice of most appropriate time for sowing. Sowing the
seeds, too early or too late results in poor crop yield.
• 6. The seeds should be sown properly and with proper
spacings.
• . 7. Sufficient and timely supply of irrigation water.
• 8. Application of sufficient quantities of right type of
fertilizers so that adequate quantities of nutrients are
available to the plants.
• 9. Proper control of weeds.
• 10. Protection of plants from diseases and harmful insects
• Threshing:
• The process of separating the grains or seed
from the ears in case of cereal crops or pod in
case of oilseed and pulse crops is called
‘Threshing’. The process of threshing helps to
make the clean produce for the use in future.
• Threshing:
• After threshing, the chaff and hay are separated from
grain by putting the threshed material before a good
natural breeze. When the threshed material is allowed
to fall from a height, the grain being heavier fall
straight on the ground, whereas chaff and hay being
lighter and blown away and from a separate heap
slightly away from the grain heap.
• The process of separating the grain from chaff and
hay with the help of natural breeze is called
winnowing.
While deciding the time of harvesting the following
factors must be taken into consideration:
1. Expected time of maturity or ripening.
2. Expected time gap between production and utilisation.
3. Available modes of packaging and storage.
4. In case of food grains, moisture content of the grain
should also be considered
Methods of Threshing:
• The common methods of threshing are:
• 1. By Manual Labour
• 2. By Animals and
• 3. By Machines
Methods of Threshing:
• 1. By Manual Labour
• Threshing by manual labour is a slow and
labour consuming device. Process of beating
the harvests on a floor or beating by stick is the
method followed for small quantity of harvests.
Methods of Threshing:
• 2. Threshing by Animals:
• Threshing by animals is very common method
used in villages. The harvest is spread on a clean
threshing space, the animals are tied in line one
after the other with the help of a strong pole,
fixed in the centre of the threshing space.
Animals move round and round on the harvest
and trample them continuously till the grains are
completely separated from straw. One man
drives the animals from the back.
Methods of Threshing:
• 2. Threshing by Animals:
• Threshing by animals is very common method
used in villages. The harvest is spread on a clean
threshing space, the animals are tied in line one
after the other with the help of a strong pole,
fixed in the centre of the threshing space.
Animals move round and round on the harvest
and trample them continuously till the grains are
completely separated from straw. One man
drives the animals from the back.
Methods of Threshing:
• . Threshing by Machines:
• With the increase of mechanization in farms,
threshing machines are getting popular day by
day. Different types of threshers are used for
threshing.