Development of harvesting equipment for tree fruits

Abstract

The harvesting of fruits is of great concern to the farmers. The damage of fruits during harvesting and the drudgery to labors are the major problems faced by farmers. The delay in harvest reduces the quality. As a solution to these problems , development of an equipment for harvesting fruits was undertaken in KCAET Tavanur under the project entitled “Development of Harvesting Equipment for Tree fruits” and a model was fabricated. The developed model basically consists of a servo motor, remote control, main frame, telescopic pole and collecting cum conveying unit. Primary testing of the developed model was conducted under field condition. The developed equipment could harvest 840 fruits per hour where as manually only 480 mango fruits could be harvested. The equipment was used for harvesting Sapota fruits also. The harvester performed better for mango crop. Practical analysis revealed that the developed equipment is effective for harvesting mango, Sapota etc. Cost of the developed equipment was Rs 4205. With few modifications, the harvester could be made available for commercial production.