Performance Evaluation of Tractor Operated Sugarcane Leaf Stripper through Analysis of Effect of Length, Girth and Number of Buds of Sugarcane

Abstract

In this present research paper analysis of the performance of tractor-operated sugarcane leaf stripper is performed. India is the second-largest producer of sugarcane and Sugarcane is the most prominent cash crop. The sugarcane harvesting process is labour intensive and takes around 850-1000 working man-hours per hectare when sugarcane is harvested manually and de-trashing alone takes 400 man-hours in manual harvesting procedures for removal of tops. Mechanized leaf stripper is developed and fabricated to prevent labour and accident and the performance of the machine is evaluated on MCO-238, K-269 and R-94184 variety of sugarcane. The data regarding de-topping time and stripping rate are taken and the effect of parameters namely Length of, Girth and number of Buds of the stalk are evaluated. The machine was operated at a roller speed of rpm. The results showed that length and number of buds affect the stripping time significantly and the length of stalk and girth of the stalk has a significant impact on the stripping rate. For stripping rate the most dominant and significant factor was the length of the stalk: MOC-238 has 62.35% contribution, K-269 has 78.10% contribution and a case of R-94184 has 60.72% contribution. The second significant factors were girth with the contribution of 33.30%, 20.53% and 36.44% contribution in MCO-238, K-269 and R-94184 varieties respectively. The factor, number of buds remained insignificant.