A STUDY ON MECHANIZING SOME PLANTING AND HARVESTING SYSTEMS FOR JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE CROP

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Prof. emrit of Agric. Eng., Fac. of Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt.

2 Pro of Agric. Eng., Fac. of Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt.

3 Assistant prof. of Agric. Eng., Fac. of Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt.

4 Post graduate student of Agric. Eng., Fac. of Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt.

Abstract

Different mechanized systems were investigated for planting and harvesting of Jerusalem artichoke crop. The mechanized planting operations were accomplished using the automatic and semi-automatic feeding planters, which were tested at four different forward speed levels. While, the mechanized harvesting operations were accomplished using potato digger and ridger machinery. These machines were also tested at four different forward speed levels. Each mechanized system was compared with the traditional manual methods by taking into consideration, the required energy, distribution uniformity of plants, tubers losses, total yield and system cost. The gained results revealed the following : The planting results showed that the tubers yield increased by 19.95% and 13.1% with automatic and semi-automatic system respectively, the automatic system recorded the highest tubers yield of 18.020 Mg/fed at forward speed of 2.05 km/h, energy requirement of 57.23 kW. h / fed and operational cost of 70 L.E/fed. While the semi-automatic system recorded the highest tubers yield of 17.564Mg/fed at forward speed of 1.21km/h, energy requirement of 80 kW. h / fed and the operational cost of 125.26L.E/fed. The harvesting results showed that, the potato digger recorded the highest tubers yield of 18.02 Mg/fed, and lowest value of criterion cost of 2618.97 L.E/fed at forward speed of 2.52km/h. While the ridger recorded the lowest tubers yield of 16.32 Mg/fed and highest value of criterion cost of 4582.89 L.E/fed at forward speed of 2.52km/h. Results show promises of using the automatic planter to do planting operations, and using the potato digger to do harvesting operations. Future research is needed to test the ability of the digger to do different farm operations.

Main Subjects

References

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Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 2
April 2009
Pages 580-596

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