PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF ICRISAT IK00006 MULTI CROP THRESHER
Threshing is one of the most critical parts of post-harvest operations which affect the quality and quantity of crop production. Assorted Motorized stationary threshers are fabricated in Nigeria. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the multi-crop motorized stationary thresher acquired by the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, Nigeria. The performance indices used were of threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, output capacity, scatter loss and breakages. The independent variables used were the concave cylinder speed, rpm and feed rate, kg/min. The work was conducted using a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design. GENSTAT 17.1 version statistical software was used to run the Analysis of variance, ANOVA. Means that were significant were further analyzed using the least significant difference, LSD. The mean performance values for IK00006 machine for sorghum crop ranged from 113.67 – 204.9 kg/h, 3.88 – 11.23 %, 71.54 – 83.31 %, 81.76 – 91.26 % and 0.00 – 0.02 %; for millet crop it ranged from 58.15 – 107.48 kg/h, 11.98 – 37.73 %, 60.42 – 68.13 %, 55.47 – 81.31 %, and 0.05 – 0.14 %; for maize crop it ranged from376.28 – 670.80 kg/h, 22.05 – 30.42 %, 85.68 – 92.46 % and 0.30 – 1.67 %, for output capacity, scatter loss, cleaning efficiency, threshing efficiency and breakages, respectively. Machine IK00006 can be best used in threshing Maize at a combination of feed rate of 40 kg/min and a speed of 950 rpm. With this, the mean values for output capacity, threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, scatter loss and grain breakages are 676.80kg/hr, 100.00%, 74.70%, 27.8% and 1.38% respectively. The best combination for threshing of Sorghum with machine IK00006 is at the feed rate of 12 kg/min and a speed of 950 rpm. With this, the mean values for output capacity, threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, scatter loss and grain breakages are 204.9kg/hr, 86.77%, 78.85%, 6.41% and 0.00%, respectively. The best combination for threshing of Millet is at the feed rate of 8 kg/min and a speed of 950 rpm. With this, the mean values for output capacity, threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, scatter loss and grain breakages are 107.48kg/hr, 76.77%, 60.42%, 32.84% and 0.05%, respectively. The mean annual operational cost for this machine was found to be N 141, 556:10, N 143,044:40 and N 141, 391:10 for the threshing of Sorghum, Millet and Maize respectively.
Authors : M. Muhammad, N.D. Dangora and A.H. Ajeigbe
Category : Open Access Volume (Issue) : 5(2) Date Uploaded : 26th May 2020