Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food crop in Sri Lanka occupying 34% of the total cultivated area. Seed paddy production is one of the major economic activities in the paddy sector, which is fully mechanized only at the large-scale level.Unavailability of an affordable mechanical solution is a big barrier for entering small and medium scale producers in to the seed paddy industry. Therefore, the aim of this study was to introduce an efficient and affordable electrical motor driven small or medium scale paddy cleaning machine for seed paddy production. The main components of the machine are paddy sieving unit, blowing unit and stone separator. According to the variety of paddy, the sieve size of the sieving unit can be changed. The performance of the machine was evaluated using paddy samples with purposely added light and heavy impurities such as straw particles and different sized stones. The suitable speeds for the better operation of sieve, separator and blower were 90, 200 and 960 rpm, respectively. The separation percentages of the large, light, and same size impurities were 96%, 74%, and 86%, respectively. The effective capacity of the machine was 252 kgh -1 with 79% mechanical efficiency.Based on the overall satisfactory performance, the newly built paddy cleaning machine can be recommended to small and medium scale paddy farmers in Sri Lanka. The machine can be further developed with a magnetic separator for removing iron particles.
In this study, three paddy harvesting systems, manual harvesting of paddy (MHP), reaper harvesting of paddy (RHP), and combine harvesting of paddy (CHP), were evaluated considering field capacities, field efficiencies, time and fuel consumption, mechanization indices, greenhouse gas emissions, straw availability, and direct and indirect costs. Field experiments were conducted in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka. The effective field capacity, field efficiency and fuel consumption of the combine harvester were 0.34 hah−1, 60.8%, and 34.1 Lha−1, respectively, and those of the paddy reaper were 0.185 hah−1, 58.2%, and 3.8 Lha−1, respectively. The total time consumed by MHP, RHP, and CHP were 76.05 hha−1, 39.76 hha−1, and 2.94 hha−1, respectively. The highest energy utilization was recorded by the CHP, at 1851.09 MJha−1, while MHP recorded the lowest at 643.20 MJha−1. The direct cost of the MHP was 1.50 and 1.52 times higher than those of the CHP and RHP, respectively. MHP recorded the lowest greenhouse gas emissions (32.94 kgCO2eqha−1), while CHP recorded the highest (176.29 kgCO2eqha−1). The RHP exhibited an intermediate level in all aspects. Although the CHP has higher field performance and direct costs, it has higher GHG emissions and indirect costs. Therefore, an optimum level of mechanization should be introduced for the long-term sustainability of both the environment and farming.
Feed blocks, which are made by improving the nutritional status of agricultural by-products, are a proved solution to uplift the productivity of dairy animals in Sri Lanka. Though feed block making machines are locally available, their prices are unaffordable for small-scale rural farmers. Therefore, the objective of this study was to introduce an efficient and affordable feed block making machine for smallscale farmers. The newly fabricated machine consisted of hydraulically operated jack, mould and a piston fixed to an iron frame. The total cost of production was 43,000 LKR. Feed blocks were produced with the new machine using two separate mixtures of ingredients with four different compaction times. Mixture 1 contained 10% molasses apart from other ingredients and without cement, whereas mixture 2 replaced 5% of molasses with cement. The suitable compaction time for the mixture 1 and mixture 2 were 15 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively at 19265 kN m-2 maximum pressure. The actual capacity of the machine for mixture 1 prepared with 15 min compaction time was 3 blocks h-1 , while it was 4 blocks h-1 for the mixture 2 prepared with 10 min compaction time irrespective to the gender. The post-compression expansion and durability of mixture 1 were 23.73% and 99.64%, respectively while the corresponding figures for mixture 2 were 18.64% and 99.82%. No change could be observed in appearance, colour and odour of the feed blocks within 30 days of storage. According to the results, this new machine is affordable to small-scale farmers and it can be successfully used to produce feed blocks for cattle.
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