TWO-WHEEL TRACTOR MOUNTED ONION HARVESTER

Onion is one of the most important commercial bulbous vegetable grown indifferent parts of the world. India is at 2nd position in world in onion production. The commonly used manual harvesting of onion is time consuming, less efficient and full of drudgery so the mechanization of harvesting is essentially needed. One of the main reasons of low productivity is insufficient man power availability on the farm and low level of farm mechanization. This is especially true for India. This prototype will be small and less costly compared to other harvesting machinery and provides efficient and effective method for harvesting to reduce human effort which is useful for small scale farmers. When the engine is started, the shaft starts to rotate along with the digger. The digger digs into the ground due to the rotation of the shaft. The assembled setup of digger carries the onion and throws it on to the conveyor. The conveyor is equipped with strips to hold the onion. The onion is carried by the conveyor and is deposited in the container. Due to motion of the machine the vibration is generated which in turn separates the soil from the onion.

Autorentext

Mahalingam Prabhaharan MSc (AIT)Senior-Dozent für Lebensmittelverarbeitungstechnik und MaschinendesignInstitut für Agrartechnik, Landwirtschaftliche FakultätUniversität Jaffna, Sri Lanka.