Title: Performance Evaluation of Self Propelled Reaper Binder for Harvesting of Wheat Crop
Abstract: In India harvesting of cereal crops is one of the major attentive agricultural operations in agriculture production, which demands considerable amount of labours. The availability and cost of labour during wheat crop harvesting season are serious problems. It is therefore, essential to adopt the mechanical methods so that the timeliness in harvesting operation could be ensured and field losses are minimized to increase production on the farm. The objective of this study was to evaluate the field performance of self propelled reaper-binder at farmer's field. The effective field capacity of the reaper binder was found as 0.17 ha h-1 with a field efficiency of 78.49 per cent at an average operating speed of 2.55 km h-1. The fuel consumption was observed as 1.12 l ha-1. The harvesting cost and losses were Rs. 3235.11 ha-1 and 25.42 kg ha 1 respectively. The feedback of machine operation was collected by some farmer's at the time of harvesting and the performance of the reaper binder at the farm was satisfactory.