ABSTRACT
The tractor-drawn single row ginger rhizome harvester was the designed, fabricated and its performance was evaluated in terms of effective field capacity, field efficiency, and percentage rhizome damage. It consists of two main units; the rectangular support component and the digging component. The rectangular support measures 900 mm by 700 mm provided the support of which the digger and the three-point linkage are attached. The digging component comprises a V-shaped digger blade with a length of 670 mm, a width of 50 mm, and a thickness of 5 mm. The harvester was operated at forward speeds of 0.63 m/s, 0.8 m/s, and 1.8 m/s, rake angles of 16o and 32o, and depth of cut of 8 cm, 10 cm, and 12 cm in a split-split plot design. The harvester's draught was measured using an electronic dynamometer; an average draught force and power were evaluated and recorded as 0.856 kN and 1.19 kW, respectively. Other machine parameters were field capacity, theoretical field capacity, and efficiency obtained ranges from 0.0225-0.0655 ha/h, 0.318-0.90 ha/h, and 68-95%, respectively. Hence, a split-split plot was used to analyse the interaction of speed, depth of cut, and rake angle. Analysis of Variance showed significant effects on harvesting ginger rhizomes, and no significant effects were demonstrated in other parameters at p ≤ 0.05. Response surface was used to obtain the optimum value of speed as 1.3 m/s and depth of cut of 8cm at rake angle either 16o or 32o. Finally, the ginger harvester offered minimal bruise to the ginger rhizomes of approximately 0.5%, thus easy to operate, reliable, and recommended for farmers' use.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Table of Contents vi
List of Tables x
List of Figures xi
Abstract xiii
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
of the Study 1
1.2 Statement
of Problem 2
1.3 Objectives of the Study 4
1.3.1 General objective of the study 4
1.3.2 Specific objectives of the study 4
1.4 Justification of the Study 4
1.5
Scope of the Work 5
Chapter 2 LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 Historical
Background of Ginger 6
2.2 Ginger
Production in Nigeria 7
2.3 Agronomy
of Ginger Production 8
2.4 Global Ginger Production 14
2.5 Ginger
Processing 17
2.5.1 Preparing
Ginger for the Market 17
2.5.2 Ginger processing mechanisms 21
2.5.3
Slicing / Splitting mechanisms 21
2.5.4
Composition of Ginger Rhizomes 22
2.6
Economic Importance of Ginger 23
2.7 Engineering Properties of Ginger 26
2.7.1 The physical
properties of Ginger 26
2.7.2
The mechanical properties of Ginger and other Tuber Crops 29
2.8 Root and Tuber Crops Harvesting 31
2.9 Development in Ginger Harvesting
Machinery 35
2.9.1 Manual harvesting of Ginger 35
2.9.2 Mechanical harvesting of Ginger 37
Chapter 3 MATERIALS
AND METHODS
3.1 Sample Preparation 40
3.2 Design Considerations of Ginger
Harvester 40
3.3 Description of Developed Machine
(Harvester) 41
3.4 Soil Properties of Experimental
Plot 46
3.5 Design of Component Parts 46
3.5.1 Design of Digger 46
3.5.2 Selection of Bolts 51
3.5.3 Selection of three-point Linkage 53
3.6 Experimental Procedure 53
3.6.1 Draught requirement 53
3.6.2 Drawbar power 54
3.6.3 Performance evaluation 54
3.7 Experimental Design 55
3.7.1 Statistical analysis 55
3.8 Bill of Engineering Measurements 57
Chapter 4 RESULTS AND
DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Soil Properties 58
4.2 Draught Force and Power of Ginger Harvester 58
4.2.1 Effect of draught force on the speed of the Harvester 59
4.3 Mass of Harvested Ginger 61
4.3.1
Effects of speeds, depth of Cuts and rake angles on the mass of harvested
Ginger 63
4.4
Field Capacity of Ginger Harvester 65
4.4.1
Effects of speeds and rake angle on field capacity 66
4.4.2
Effects of depth of cuts and rake angles on field capacity 67
4.4.3
Effects of interaction of speeds and depth of cuts on field capacity 68
4.5
Field Efficiency of Ginger Harvester 69
4.5.1 Effects of the interactions
of speeds and depth of cuts on field efficiency 70
4.5.2 Effects of
interactions of depth of cuts and rake angle on field efficiency 71
4.5.3 Effects of
interactions of speeds and rake angle on field efficiency 72
4.6 Percentage of
Rhizome Bruises 73
Chapter 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusion 74
5.2 Recommendations 75
References
76
Appendices 81
LIST OF TABLES
2.1: Production of Ginger in Nigeria 16
2.2: Ginger production by the top ten Country
in year 2018 17
2.3: Summary of
physical properties of Ginger (Zingiber officinale) 26
2.4: Descriptive
statistics for mass of 50 Rhizomes of two Ginger varieties 27
2.5: Descriptive
statistics for volume of 50 Rhizomes of two Ginger varieties 27
2.6: Descriptive
statistics for sphericity of 50 Rhizomes of two Ginger varieties 28
2.7: Descriptive statistics
for Particle of 50 Rhizomes of two Ginger varieties 28
3.1: Properties of Soil obtained from the Eastern Farmland of MOUAU 46
3.2: Design dimensions of
Screw Threads, Bolts and Nuts 52
3.3: Standard dimension
of three-point Linkage 53
3.4: An outline of the analysis of
variance for split-split plot design 56
3.5: Bill
of engineering measurements 57
4.1: Draught of the Tractor without
Load 59
4.2: Draught of the Tractor cum
Harvester 59
4.3: Draught of the Harvester 60
4.4: Mass of undamaged Ginger (g) harvested
at a travel distance of 14.6 m 62
4.5: Harvested time taken
when the Tractor covers a distance of 14.6 m 63
4.6: Analysis of variance Table for
mass of Ginger harvested 64
4.7: Field capacity of Ginger Harvester
66
4.8: Analysis of variance for field capacity 67
4.9: Field efficiency of Ginger Harvester 70
4.10: Analysis of variance for field efficiency 71
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1: Hilled young Ginger Plant 10
2.2: Ginger flowering Plant 11
2.3:
Harvested Ginger Roots being washed 12
2.4: Matured Ginger Root 14
2.5: Ginger production in Nigeria 15
2.6: Ginger Production by the top ten Country in
year 2018 16
2.7: Flowchart for Ginger processing 20
2.8: Isometric view of motorized Ginger Rhizome slicing
Machine 22
2.9: General structure of Gingerols (n= 1, 4, 6, 8, 10) for specific
Compounds 23
2.10:
The underground Vegetable Harvester 32
2.11: Three dimension view of cassava
uprooting device 33
2.12:
The Sugarcane harvesting Machine
34
2.13:
Combined Harvester 34
2.14: NCAM mechanized Cassava Harvester 35
2.15: Manual harvesting (Hand
picking holding the Stems/Branches) of Ginger 37
2.16:
Spade (A) and digging Fork (B) used for Ginger harvesting 37
2.17: Ginger Harvester with Tracks 38
2.18:
Harvesting Machine for Ginger 39
2.19:
Fully assembled Ginger harvesting Machine 40
3.1:
Isometric drawing of a row Ginger Harvester 43
3.2:
Orthographic projection of a row Ginger Harvester 44
3.3: Front view of a row
Ginger Harvester 45
3.4: Side view of a row
Ginger Harvester 46
3.5:
Free-body diagram of the Digger Blade 50
3.6:
Free-body, shear force and bending moment Diagrams 51
3.7:
Dynamometer 55
3.8: Split-split plot design of some
selected field parameters for harvesting Ginger Rhizome 56
4.1:
Draught force of the Harvester at constant speed 61
4.2:
Effects of speeds on the mass of harvested Ginger 65
4.3:
Surface plot of field capacity verses speed and rake angle 67
4.4:
Surface plot of field capacity verses depth of cuts and rake angles 68
4.5:
Surface plot of field capacity verses speed and depth of cuts 69
4.6:
Surface plot of field efficiency verses speeds and depth of cuts 71
4.7:
Surface plot of field efficiency verses depth of cuts and rake angle 72
4.8:
Surface plot of field efficiency verses speeds and rake angles 73
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Harvesting
is a method of cutting and collection of mature crops from the field, and a harvester is a machine used for
harvesting (Adarsh et al., 2013). Tadesse
(2015) defined harvesting as the main technique of bringing together the field's
target crop product. It is open to the climate's impulse and the growing environment
and places it in controlled processing and a stable storage environment. He
further inferred that the harvesting requirements depend on the final product
sought, specific needs such as maturity and evenness, and intended use, which
dictates the harvesting management and timing at which rhizomes are harvested.
Harvesting of crops could include combining
all processes: Cutting, digging, picking, gathering, transport, and stacking.
After average maturity, the harvest occurs to remove grains, straws, tubers,
and so on with minimum loss. In traditional harvesting of ginger, diggers, hoes,
and spades are used with humans, providing the power to penetrate the soil and
uproot the ginger rhizomes.
Some researchers (Agbetoye (1999), Akinbamowo
(2013), and Subramanian et al.
(2015)) reported that there are several modern design of harvesters utilized for reaping crops.
There are also different harvesting principles of operation employed based on
the category of crops to be harvested. These designs were possible to
incorporate the following: sickles, hand tools, and reapers are utilized for
grain crops while diggers are
primarily used for underground crops (like turmeric, ginger, yam, cassava);
these harvesters machine could be operated with various sources of power
(Subramanian
et al., 2015). Nevertheless, both
tractor-mounted and self-propelled harvesters are mostly used to harvest other
grain crops. It integrates into a single operation process that previously
required three separate operations – reaping, threshing, and winnowing. Amongst
the crops reaped with a
combine harvester include oats, rye, maize, barley, corn, soya beans, wheat and
flax (Akinwunmi,
2013).
Agbetoye et al.
(2011) and Akinbamowo (2013) reported that plough was the earliest attempt to
mechanize tropical root crops' harvesting. The main mechanism is an oxen-drawn digger or a
tractor coupled with a share and rising fingers. Sometimes sifting fingers are
connected at the rear of the rising fingers for adequate sorting. One of the
earliest known harvester is the potato spinner, which consist of a flat share fixed
horizontally to a tractor to plough the earth and hoist the root crops. The
hoist material is further transferred into a rapidly rotating tine series on a
hub that is either by land wheel driven or PTO. The tines break the soil and
detach the crop.
Younus and
Jayan (2015) described the manually operated IITA
cassava lifter as another early harvester consisting of a lever and fixed
gripping jaw are mounted to the frame for uprooting cassava roots.
Numerous harvesting techniques have been
initiated to harvest similar crops like cassava, potatoes, cocoyam, and
turmeric using mechanical diggers. Also, an effort has been made to design a
ginger harvester using blades (diggers) powered by an electric motor (Sanjay et al., 2015).
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Most
manual harvesting operations are done with rudimentary equipment like cutlasses,
hoes, and diggers. These harvesting methods are slow, leading to drudgery,
leaving a considerable amount of the tubers either remaining in the ground or
damaged (Agbetoye, 1999). Manual ginger harvesting is tedious, risky, energy-sapping,
and time-consuming, resulting in the loss of ginger rhizomes and a low
production rate (Sanjay et al., 2015).
According to Younus and Jayan (2015),
manual harvesting of cassava requires about 22-62 man-hour per hectare. Padmanathan
et al. (2006) emphasized that the
practice of traditional threshing and harvesting of groundnut consumes a
considerable amount of labour to the magnitude of 84 man-hours per hectare.
Igbo et al. (2016) opined that ginger
production mechanization had received little attention in Nigeria. Only a small
number of farmers use mechanized farm machines for field preparation involving
ploughing, harrowing, and ridging. The majority of ginger cultivators are peasant
and small scale farmers and they prepare their fields using conventional
approach. Most farm operations in Nigeria like planting, mulching, fertilizer
application, weeding as well as harvesting are usually accomplished
traditionally. They further syllogized that the low level of ginger rhizome harvests
results from inadequate adaptable farm mechanization technologies and
management practices in Nigeria.
By hand forks or
with diggers, farmers' traditional harvesting method employed to deracinate
ginger is among the primary root causes of ginger's low production.
Notwithstanding the technological breakthrough in the development and fabrication of harvesters, for example, carrot harvester, groundnut harvester, cassava harvester, cocoyam harvester,
yam harvester, etc., little has been done for the ginger harvester. There is no
ginger harvester in Nigeria, but an engine-driven ginger harvester has been
designed in India by Sanjay et al. (2015).
Therefore, the problems facing this study
include the following:
(i)
Non-availability
of locally designed or fabricated machine for harvesting ginger.
(ii) Low production
rate, occasioned by manual harvesting.
(iii) Harvesting
constitutes a significant impediment because of the energy expended and time
spent in uprooting the ginger rhizomes.
(iv) Harvesting
exposes individuals to high risks and hazards.
In this project, a typical ginger harvesting
machine will be designed, developed, and evaluated in such a manner that it
will be capable of efficiently harvesting all ginger rhizomes.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.3.1 General objective of the study
The general objective of the study is to develop a
single-row tractor-drawn ginger rhizome harvester.
1.3.2 Specific
objectives of the study
The specific objectives of the study are to:
(i)
design a tractor-drawn ginger rhizome
harvester
(ii) fabricate a
tractor-drawn ginger rhizome harvester
(iii)
determine the draught requirement for
operating the developed harvester as affected by soil moisture and angle of inclination of the
digger and
(iv) evaluate the performance of the developed
tractor-drawn ginger rhizome harvester in terms of effective field capacity,
field efficiency, and percentage rhizome damage.
1.4
JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Harvesting
constitutes a major operation among agricultural activities. It is considered
for a long time as the last step in production; instead, it must be approached
as the first one in the postproduction system. The techniques for harvesting crops
differ based on the type of plant to be harvested. Cereal crops are first cut
either as a whole or partially (ears) and then threshed and cleaned to separate
the grain from the ears and straw, but for forage crops the whole plant is entirely
cut. Root and tuber crops are quite different because the crop is uprooted
while the soil sticking to it is removed. Odigboh (2006) enumerated the most severe
bottleneck in agricultural mechanization: planting, weeding, harvesting, and
peeling. Therefore, it is pertinent to develop mechanized equipment that
tackles the challenges encountered during ginger's harvesting.
A ginger harvesting machine will be developed to
overcome the drudgery, time-wasting, and low productivity associated with the
manual harvesting method. The ginger harvester's design and operation's
simplicity will improve the quantity and quality of harvested ginger rhizomes,
thus increasing ginger rhizomes' yield in the country.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE WORK
This study's scope encompasses the design,
development, and evaluation of ginger harvester, which is tractor drawn, and the
rhizomes are manually collected.
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