Future Requirements of Agricultural Machines for Mechanizing ...

Table 10. Dehuskers, Shellers and Decorticators Developed under NARS
are specialized carts and trollies developed for
movement of men in rural areas but not popular yet.
2.1.12 Dehusking, Shelling and Decortication:
Dehusking, shelling and decortication are important on
-farm value adding primary processing to make the
produce more presentable to the buyer, and help in
reducing transport, handling and storage costs before
further processing and utilization. Maize cobs need to
be dehusked and shelled to get grain for marketing,
processing and use. Coconut, arecanut are dehusked
dried before bringing in the market. Groundnut, castor,
almonds etc need to be decorticated to get the kennels.
Low cost manual and power operated dehuskers, shellers
and decorticators have been developed (Table 10). For
minor oilseeds like cucumber seeds, neem, mango,
kusum etc. decorticators have been developed or adapted
but yet to be fully commercialized.
2.1.13 Cleaning and Grading: Separation under
natural air stream, cleaning with cleaning basket (‘Supa’)
and sieving with manual sieve and manual grading have
been in vogue to remove chaff and foreign matter and
quality improvement through grading using sieve in case
of foodgrains and oilseeds. In case of F&V manual
washing and grading are generally practiced. Improved
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STATUS OF FARM MECHANIZATION IN INDIA
Particulars Manual Coconut Tubular Maize Manual TNAU Arecanut TNAU Groundnut
Dehusker Sheller Groundnut Dehusker Decorticator
Developed at CPCRI, Kasargod CIAE, Bhopal CIAE, Bhopal TNAU, Coimbatore TNAU, Coimbatore
Specifications
*Type Manual, piercing Manual Oscillating shoe- Power operated Power operated
type concave, manual rotor-concave Osci-drumbatch
continuous concave,
continuous
*Dimension, mm 680x275x1980 72x65 250x500x1100 1560x660x1600 1320x450x1380
*Weight, kg — — — — 195
Test Results
*Suitability Coconut Maize Groundnut, castor Dried arecanut Groundnut
*Capacity 150 nuts/h 15-20 kg/h 40-45 kg/h pods 100 kg/h 260 kg/h
*Labour 1 1 2 1 2
*Power Manual Manual Manual 1 hp motor 1 hp motor
*Shefling (eff %) 100 100 100 — 95-8
Economics
*Capital cost, Rs 3,000 25 800 15,000 15,000
*Unit cost, Rs/q 15 30 50 20 10
*Working capital, Rs 500-1000 Negligible 2000-3000 5000-8000 5000-7000
*RI% 40-45 100 or more 50-60 40-50 30-40
*Pay back period, y 2-3, @ 150 d/y 10-12 days 1.5-2.0 y 2-2.5 y 2.5-3.0 @ 150 d/y
of operation @30-40 d/y @150 d/y
Stage of exploitation Commercial Commercial Commercial Yet to be Commercial
commercialized
Source of availability CPCRI, Kasargod 1. CIAE, Bhopal 1. CIAE, Bhopal TNAU, TNAU,
2. MP Agro-Ind., 2. MP Agro-Ind., Coimbatore Coimbatore
Bhopal Bhopal
3. M/s Bindu 3. M/s Bindu Agro-
Agro-Ind., Bhopal Ind., Bhopal
winnowing fans, winnowers, pre-cleaners, cleaners and
graders both manual and power operated have been
developed and adopted, commercialized and used for
foodgrain and oilseeds, seed. Power operated washers,
graders and packaging lines have been developed for
F&V and many of them commercialized but not popular
yet. Seed cleaners and graders achieving very high
degree of efficiencies (over 98%) are commercially
manufactured and in use. Table 11 and 12 present some
of the cleaners and graders developed under Indian
NARS.
2.1.14 Drying and Dryers: Drying under sun or
shade where hot dry air conditions prevail is a common
traditional method of drying of foodgrains, fruit and
vegetables and many other commodities to extend their
shelf life for their safe storage for off season use and
have value added products for additional income.
However under unfavourable condition of hot, humid
and overcast or rainy weather drying gets too slow so
much so that before drying is accomplished molds and
fungi develop contaminating and spoiling the material.
To overcome this handicap different kind of drying
methods and dryers have been developed but not in use
except for the milling units or home level solar dryers.