Performance Evaluation of Experimental Self-Propelled Double Row Sugarcane Harvester

摘要

India produces more than 340 millions tonnes of cane at an average rate of 70 tonnes per ha. It is grown by small, medium and big farmers, but 83 % of sugarcane growers fall in small holder category. Sugarcane harvesting is the single most expensive and labour intensive operation in sugarcane farming. Whole Stalk harvesting or Cut-chop harvesting are expensive systems and as such beyond the capacity of average farmer of developing countries. Most of the sugarcane farmers in developing countries use a handheld knife to cut the sugarcane stalks at the base level and green top by impact force. In some developing countries, including India, farmers are beginning to face labour shortages, because of recurring labour scarcity during harvest season. It is desirable to transport the harvested cane to the factory within 24 h, as the yield declines by 0.4 % per day after cutting. In this study an experimental self-propelled double row sugarcane harvester powered by an 8 hp diesel engine was used. The machine was evaluated for field capacity (ha/h), fuel consumption (1/h) and material capacity (t/h) as dependent parameters and forward speed (2 level), method of collec- tion (viz. guide bar method and rope method) and cutter bar speed (3 level) as the independent parameters. The experiment was conducted for trench planted sugarcane crop. The optimum parameters were found at; forward speeds 1.0-1.4 km/h, guide bar and 1,020 strokes/min of knife bar in trench plant cane.