FABRICATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF VARIABLE WIDTH WHOLE-STALK SUGARCANE HARVESTER

Abstract

Sugarcane is one of the most important cash crops grown in Pakistan which accounts for 3.4% share in agriculture value addition and 0.7% in gross domestic products (GDP). It is a tropical and perennial grass sensitive to the soil type, climate change, irrigation, insects, fertilizers, varieties and the harvest period. Pakistan annually produces 81.1 million metric tons (MMT) of sugarcane but unfortunately, about 30% sugarcane crop is lost at harvesting stage particularly due to deficiency of mechanized harvesting approaches. This study has been carried out to fabricate and performance evaluate a tractor propelled sugarcane harvester to reduce sugarcane losses during harvesting in Pakistan. The major components of indigenously developed sugarcane harvester include hydraulically operated bottom cutter, top cutter, blower and conveyor and all of them are fixed on a movable iron frame. For optimization, the sugarcane harvester was operated at three different gears (G1, G2and G3) and engine speeds (N1=1800, N2=1900 and N3=2000 rpm) of tractor and working widths (Kw1=0.85, Kw2=0.92 and Kw3=1.02 m) of harvester for sugarcane variety CP-77400 to determine themaximum field efficiency and material capacity. The results showed that maximum field efficiency was found to be 75.10% and material capacity was 12.87 ton/hr at G3, N3and Kw3.