Development and Testing of a Banana Sucker Uprooting Machine as an Attachment to the Tractor

Abstract

High labour wages, extreme labour scarcity experienced during peak seasons of field operations necessitated the introduction of labour saving and location specific farm implements and machinery for banana cultivation in Kerala. No ratooning is practiced in ‘Nendran’ variety of banana. Hence every year fresh planting is necessary. Only a small time gap is obtained between harvest and fresh plantings. Uprooting the mother plant and suckers, clearing the land etc. are highly labour intensive in banana cultivation. As the entire State faces an acute shortage of labour, the development of suitable equipment for uprooting the banana clump is necessary. The present practice of uprooting takes lot of time and energy. In the University farms, one man labour uproots 15-20 clumps per day. At the present wage rate of Rs.185 per man, an amount of Rs.9250 per acre is required for uprooting of banana clumps after harvest. Hence, a study was undertaken to develop a suitable banana sucker uprooting machine as an attachment to the tractor and the same was developed and tested. The physical and mechanical properties of banana rhizomes namely, size, shape, and weight were found out using standard test procedures. Based on the effective root zone area and unit draft of the soil, the total draft force required to lift the clump was calculated. An ordinary tractor was used as a prime mover. The machine (attachment) consists of a gib crane fitted with a tyne at its lower end. It was tested with an experimental test rig made for this purpose with load cells/strain gauges. Three sets of blades (tynes) were fabricated and were optimized. The final prototype was fabricated and tested in the main field. The developed uprooting machine as special attachment to the tractor with separate hydraulic cylinder and direction control valve (Model – II) uprooted a soil- rhizome composite (banana clump) within 1 to 2 minutes. Hence, by using this machine, near about 180 banana clumps can be uprooted per day of six hours. The field capacity of the machine was 0.19 ha h -1 . The cost of operation for uprooting per hectare is Rs.1642. So it can be presumed that the cost of uprooting can be reduced to three fourth. Therefore the practica