VINOD KUMAR*, ANIL KUMAR,NARESH, VIJAYA RANI, S. MUKESH AND RAVINDER POONIA
Department of Farm Machinery & Power Engineering, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
(*e-mail : vinodghorla@yahoo.co.in)
(Received : January 12, 2017; Accepted : March 27, 2017)
ABSTRACT
A low cost tractor drawn carrot bed loosening implement was developed to assist in carrot harvesting. It reduces human drudgery involved in carrot harvesting. The implement consisted of frame, carrot bed loosening unit and side thrust balancing unit. The bed loosening unit comprised a rectangular soil cutting blade mounted at an inclination on a tyne. The cutting blade was operated in soil below the depth of carrot to loosen the carrot bed. The carrots were then pulled by the labour. The implement loosened one bed row at a time. The actual field capacity of the implement was 0.0108 ha/h with field efficiency of 69.26%. The implement had digging efficiency of 97.56%. The percentage of undug carrots and bruised carrots was 0.409 and 1.515. It was able to save Rs. 59.9 per hour as compared to manual carrot harvesting.
Key words :Carrot harvesting, performance, economic evaluation, blade design