Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

Threshing is still a big problem for the majority of farmers in the hilly region. It is a process to detach and clean the grains from the ear head of crop plants. Grain threshing can either be done mechanically or by traditional methods. The traditional process of threshing of crops like wheat, rice, millet etc. is done by hands in which bunch of crop-panicles are beaten against a hard element like a wooden log, plank, bamboo-table, stone etc. This process involves lots of drudgeries, wastage of time and losses.Therefore, a unique multi-crop thresher has been developed and tested for threshing, separating and cleaning various crops. The machine was designed to be powered by one hp single phase electric motor. It can be used for threshing of all major crops being grown in the North-Western part of Himalayas. Threshing capacity of the machine for wheat, paddy, barnyard millet, finger millet and amaranth, was observed as 34, 75, 58, 54, and 30 kg/h, respectively. However, threshing efficiency for these crops was found to be greater than or equal to 98%. Cleaning efficiency for the above crops was more than 95%. This multi-crop thresher would benefit hill and small farmers by not only saving their time and labour but also increase the productivity of hill farmers and reduce the drudgery involved in the manual/traditional threshing operations.