Author : N.Nisha 1
Date of Publication :17th November 2017
Abstract: Harvesting of small onion crop from the field is an important operation in the cultivation of small onion. In our country, few models of small onion harvesters are developed in which damage of bulbs are more so it is not used by farmers. Nonavailability of matching equipment for different farm operations limits the versatility of the power tillers. Hence a small onion harvester is developed as an attachment to power tiller which will increase the annual usage of power tiller in the farmers holding in addition to make the power tiller a versatile power source. The structural analysis was carried out using SolidWorks software to predict the behavior of the digging tool while working in soil using the design parameters. The performance of power tiller operated small onion harvester was field tested for harvesting CO (On) 5 variety. The field capacity was found to be 0.08 ha h-1. The cost of harvesting with the small onion harvester was Rs. 918/- ha-1. The saving in cost and time were 59.2 and 93.75 per cent respectively as compared to conventional method of manual harvesting. The break-even point (BEP) of the small onion harvester costing Rs. 9000 was 60.13 h of operation per annum. The harvesting, conveying and soil separation efficiency of the developedharvester is 97.4, 86.9 and 84 per cent
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