Vol. 10, Special Issue 11 (2021)

Author(s):
MD Nikam, SK Thakare, Mrudulata M Deshmukh and ER Vaidya

Abstract:
Harvesting of groundnut is one of the most important operations in groundnut cultivation. During peak seasons due to the non-availability of labour, delay in harvesting of groundnut and results in heavy losses. For minimizing the labour problems during peak harvesting seasons and to ensure timeliness operation an attempt was made to develop a conceptual model of groundnut harvester that will be able to uproot, pick and convey the plant and strip the pods from the plant while moving through the field. To carry out the desired function, the groundnut harvester comprise of a digging unit, conveying unit, pod stripping unit and collection unit. The digging unit penetrates into the soil up to the desired depth and brings out the groundnut plants with pods on the ground surface. Conveying unit will pick up the plant and convey it to pod stripping mechanism which stripped the pods from the plant due to its impact force and will allow them to fall into the collection unit. The stripped pods and plants will be collected in separate collection unit.