Development and Performance Evaluation of Groundnut Digger Elevator cum Heap Formater

Groundnut (Archis hypogaea L) or peanut is a major oilseed crop which contributes 40 per cent of the total area and 30 per cent of total production of oilseed crops. In India among the major groundnut growing states, Gujarat is the most important one accounting for 36 % of the total area. The groundnut digger elevator cum heap formater was developed considering various theories related to digger, elevator and heap formater assembly, agronomical parameters of groundnut, functional requirement and general consideration. The main components such as main frame, digging blade, elevator and heap assembly were developed. The developed groundnut digger elevator cum heap formater was able to dig up the groundnut plants with pods and convey them for removing the soil from pods and making heap. The experimental results showed the depth of cut of groundnut digger elevator cum heap assembly was found as 13.00 cm, while width of coverage measure as 60 cm and moisture content (d.b.) of 19.20%. The draft requirement of 235 kgf and power requirement was calculated 7.83 hp with fuel requirement of 2.04 l/h. The theoretical field capacity of digger elevator cum heap formater was 0.12 ha/h while effective field capacity was 0.0935 ha/h with field efficiency of 80.47 %. The digging efficiency were found as 84.18, 85.23 and 86.36 % at the forward speed of 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h respectively. The total quality of pod was found 176.41, 180.21 and 173.91 gm and pod damage percentage was found 4.37, 4.36 and 4.73 % at forward speed of 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 km/h. The cost of harvesting by developed digger cum heap formater was found to be ₹ 371.98 /h.