Performance evaluation of different weeders in cotton

The present study was carried out to predict the performance different type’s weeder in cotton crop so that efficient machine can be selected by farmer. The crop and machine performance parameter were recorded at three stages of cotton crop i.e. pre-square, square and flowering. The soil resistance was recorded before, just after weeding (3rd stage) and at the time of harvest. Yield data (g/plant) was recorded under all the treatments taken in both varieties. The weeding efficiency of different weeder was found between 74 to 89 per cent. The field capacity of tractor operated inter row rotary weeder was in the range of 0.54 to 0.59 ha/h whereas it was 0.8 ha/ h in tractor operated high clearance cultivator, 0.16 ha/h with engine operated power weeder and 0.05 ha/h with manual hand hoe. The per cent saving in cost of operation with mechanical weeder over manual hand hoe was in the range of 80 to 93. The B:C ratio of mechanical weeder selected for study was in the range of 1.57 to 4.4 and payback period was in the range of 0.44 to 1.7 years. Time saving over manual hand hoe in weeding operation with the use of tractor operated weeder was 90 to 93 per cent whereas in engine operated weeder it was 68.7 per cent over manual hand hoe. The per cent saving in labour requirement with the use of mechanical weeder was in the range of 96 to 99 per cent over manual hand hoe. From result obtained from the study tractor operated weeder (operating width= 1500mm) was found suitable for cotton crop.

Influence of process variables on quality attributes of jaggery prepared by vacuum pan evaporation technology

Jaggery is a solid unrefined, non- centrifugal cane sugar (NCS) with unique colour, flavor and aroma obtained from crushing of cane and evaporating of sugarcane juice. In this paper vacuum pan evaporation method were used sugarcane juice boiling at vacuum pressure (Vp : 500-700 mm of Hg), time (t:60-90 min) and temperature (T:100-1200 C). The quality attributes of jaggery developed from vacuum pan evaporator were investigated at different process variables. The developed jaggery were analyzed for physiochemical. Results showed that TSS (0 Brix) and Hardness (Hd) increased with increase in vacuum pressure and time, whereas moisture content percentage (%) and water activity (aw) decreased with increase in vacuum pressure and time at variable temperature of 1100 C. Fuzzy logic method was used to evaluate the sensory characteristic of prepared jaggery.

Quantification of farm mechanization status in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, India

Investigation on farm mechanization status of Kanker district Chhattisgarh was carried out for sustainable crop production. District falls in Chhattisgarh plains and Bastar plateau of agro climatic zones of Chhattisgarh having average rainfall varies from 1400 mm to 1500 mm where 90 % rainfall during the June to October. The total net sown area of the district is 2.37 lakh ha with cropping intensity around 122 %. To known the status of farm mechanization, level of mechanization was found out by considering available farm power sources namely human, animal and mechanical. A stratified multistage sampling design was applied considering block as a first stage, village as a second stage and cultivators are the final stage of the sampling. From Kanker district of Chhattisgarh. The 30 villages were selected from each seven block of Kanker district using Probability Proportional to Size (of Village). Then from each village, 10 cultivators were selected using random sampling. Primary data were collected from 300 cultivators from 30 villages. After selection of variables, a standard questionnaire was prepared to collect primary data. Average value of power availability, farm power consumption and present mechanization level is significantly highest in high productive blocks namely Charama, Kanker, Koilibeda in comparison to other four low productive blocks i.e. Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Durgkondal and Narharpur block, respectively. Draft animal power available in study area was 0.41 bullock-pair per ha. The command area available per unit of power source for the marginal, small, medium and large farmers was 0.70, 2.01, 3.50 and 11.33 ha/bullock pair with over all availability of 2.42 ha per bullock-pair. However, tractor and power tiller manage the overall command area of 40.43 ha per tractor and 165.38 ha per power tiller. The mechanization level of Kanker district was found 1.37 kW ha-1.

Storage height optimization of Chamravattom regulator-cumbridge, Kerala

Water scarcity is an alarming problem that we face now-a-days. Even though we have abundant sources of water, good quality water is not available when most needed. There comes the relevance of water conservation structures. Allocation of water in case of multipurpose projects among various competing needs such as drinking water, irrigation, industrial demands, downstream release, pisciculture etc. is a matter of great concern. Hence reservoirs must be subjected to thorough analysis to see that each drop of water impounded is utilized in the best possible manner. So a study was undertaken for the proposed Regulator-Cum-Bridge (RCB) on Bharathapuzha River at Chamravattom in Malappuram district of Kerala, with the specific objective of determining the optimum storage height of the regulator. The storage height was optimized by considering the inflow and demands on the reservoir for 18 years data. The height was decided as six meters as it gave least deficit when compared to four and five meters.

Feasibility study of gravity drip irrigation for small scale farmers

Gravity fed drip irrigation techniques have been used in the small agricultural production as an advanced water saving irrigation method in recent times. However advantageous this method, there are still some difficulties in projecting the efficiency of such systems. Most especially, feasibility study of gravity drip irrigation for small scale farmers is very important in order to set up an efficient irrigation system. This study is focused to test the feasibility of the drip irrigation the experiment was run and Uniformity co-efficient and Distribution uniformity. In the study, the discharge of emitters at 1.0 m and 0.5 m emitter spacing and 1.0 m lateral spacing and for four irrigation durations (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 120 minutes) was measured. The results clearly indicates that the selected emitters of 4 LPH rated discharge and 2.0 kg/cm2 pressure when used under gravity drip irrigation and at about 0.5-0.8 kg/cm2 pressure, discharges between 1.8-2.5 LPH. 6. The gravity drip irrigation can meet the water requirement of vegetable crops with acceptable UC and DU and can be a better solution for small scale farmers of the region in order to save the scarce fresh water resources.

Automatic protray conveying and dibbling system towards development of automatic protray seeder for vegetable nursery

Quality and healthy seedling production is very important for successful vegetable cultivation. Recent days hybrid vegetable seedlings are raised in protrays under protected cultivation to ensure quality seedling production. Vegetable nursery raising is an upcoming successful entrepreneurship area. Growing media filled protrays are dibbled and seeded manually. This process is very tedious, labour intensive, time consuming and drudgery. Keeping this in view, an automatic protray conveying, dibbling and seeding system was designed and developed. The design and construction of automatic protray conveying and dibbling system is presented is this paper. The machine was designed suitable for 98 protray cell (Protray dimension : 530 x 275 mm and protray cavity matrix: 14 x 7 (lengthwise x widthwise) which is widely used for vegetable nursery raising. This system consisted of protray conveyor and indexing system, dibbling unit, penumatic systems, electronic controls and programmable logic controller (PLC). The main conveyor shaft was driven by a stepper motor and the stepper motor was driven by a micro-stepping drive with 3200 pulse/rev configuration. Each protray was detected by a sensor and indexed by determined distance pre-programed of PLC. The function of dibbling unit was to make 10 mm dia. x 10 mm deep depressions at the center of the each cell of the growing media filled protray. The dibbling unit was a set of conically shaped tubular pegs arranged in a common bar. The stroke of the operation was 30 mm and indenting was 10 mm deep. Proximity sensor of PNP type was used for the dead end limits of all motions and conveyor index. The sensors used were dibbling station home sensor, dibbling station lower sensor, main conveyor indexing sensor and tray detection sensor. The entire cycle was controlled by a logic programme and this synchronized the conveyor motion (position/inching) with the dibbling system. This machine was able to index the growing media protrays at the predetermined distance of 38.3 mm and to make uniform depth cavities. The dibbling capacity was found to be 300 protrays/h.

Electronic sensors and biosensor used for automation in the food industry

The current health pandemic and crisis has added a mountain of challenges across the food and beverage industry, as consumer buying patterns are changing and both production of goods and other business operations have been disrupted. Human touch should be minimized to reduce such kind of infections. So automation of food industry should be increased. The food industry has traditionally lagged behind other industries in adopting new technology, and plant automation is no exception. However, rapid advances in computer technology and heightened expectations of consumers and regulatory agencies for improved food quality and safety have forced the food industry to consider automation of most manufacturing processes. Though the food industry presents many unique challenges to complete automation, the industry has been successful in putting many automatic processes into place. Sensors and controllers are electronic devices and are the main backbone for the automation of food industry. In this paper some important electronic sensors and biosensors used for food automation are described.

Optimization of two steps pretreatment techniques on lignin elimination in wheat straw to improve the bio-oil quality

Cross-linking of degraded lignin components present to bio-oil increases the density and causes instability during storage. Bio-oil quality and quantity from wheat straw was improved by alkaline and enzymatic treatment before pyrolysis. Alkaline pretreatment reduced the lignin content from 18 per cent to 10 per cent. Enzymatic pretreatment using -glucosidase and cellulase in ratio 5:10, 10:10, 15:10 U for 24, 48, 72 h was optimized by using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and eliminated 3.1 per cent lignin. The maximum reducing sugar and glucose content was found 24.2 g/L and 15.488 g/L, respectively. Bio-oil yield by fast pyrolysis of treated and untreated wheat straw was 30 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively. Bio-oil of the treated wheat straw exhibited increased in pH, higher density and decreased in viscosity. The flash point of bio-oil from treated wheat straw was very close to commercial diesel. Bio-oil was characterized by FTIR and GC-MS analysis.

Development and performance evaluation of pedal operated dehuller for black soybean

Black soybean is a food source which contains high quality protein and does not contain cholesterol and saturated fatty acids. It is rich in vitamin and minerals and has significant medicinal effect. In India, traditional method of dehusking the black soybean is hand operated grindstone (Chakki). In grindstone, main disadvantage is the incomplete dehulling of the beans. This method of dehusking is also tedious and time consuming process. Therefore post harvest management and processing of black soybean are very important and hence an effort has been made to develop a pedal operated dehuller for Uttarakhand women with the help of anthropometric data. Dehuller works on the principle of shearing force where black soybean passes through between the grind stone roller and concave surface of perforated mild steel sheet and power would be provided through pedal to the machine. The different components were designed and best dehulling efficiency of the machine was 72.08 per cent at 10 per cent moisture content and 25kg/h feed rate with payback period of 1.67year. This machine is basically designed for Uttarakhand small women farmers and can generate employment.