Performance Evaluation and Field Characterization of the Sifang Mini Rice Combine Harvester

Abstract

Abstract. Performance of a Sifang mini rice combine, originally developed in China, was evaluated under local farmer field conditions in Benin. Results from field evaluation show that the combine worked satisfactorily on less dense rice fields with minimal weeds at grain moisture contents between 19.1% and 20.1% w.b. on soils with moisture content from 23% to 33% d.b. while causing no significant changes to soil physical properties. With harvesting speed ranging from 0.8 to 4.5 km/h, the harvester had a field capacity of 0.10 to 0.39 ha/h and consumed fuel of up to 11 L/ha while having track slip of 6% to 9%. Harvesting using 2- and 1-L gear offered the best efficiency for IR841 and Nerica L20 rice varieties, respectively. As harvesting speed increased, harvesting efficiency decreased and crop throughput increased irrespective of rice variety. The combine produced low mechanical grain damage with total grain loss ranging from 1.43% to 4.43% and 1.85% to 5.6% for the IR841 and Nerica L20 rice varieties, respectively. At an investment cost of US$5000 and hiring at US$10 per h, owning the mini combine harvester becomes profitable after 342 h of machine use; equivalent to approximately 133 ha of paddy field harvested at a harvesting capacity of 0.39 ha/h. Further testing of the combine under a wide range of crop and soil conditions across different agro-ecological zones and economic comparison with manual harvesting is recommended. This would offer smallholder farmers diverse options of rice harvesting mechanization to facilitate future adoption of improved technologies. Keywords: Crop throughput, Field capacity, Field efficiency, Grain loss, Mini rice combine, Sifang.

Physicochemical and nutritional properties of rice as affected by parboiling steaming time at atmospheric pressure and variety

“…Several rice varieties have been developed for different rice production systems. In addition, good practices (agronomic and postharvest) including mechanization options are also being developed or adapted to increase the quantity and quality of locally produced rice (Amponsah, Addo, Dzisi, Moreira, & Ndindeng, ; Ndindeng et al., ; Saito et al., ). It is worth noting that most technologies have not reached most end‐users to produce the desired impact.…”

Combine Harvester: Impact on paddy production in Bangladesh

“…Paddy loss could be saved 4.47% using combine harvester over manual harvesting. Amponsah et al (2017) mentioned grain loss using combine ranging from 1.43% to 4.43% and 1.85% to 5.6% for the IR841 and Nerica L20 rice varieties, respectively. Kannan et al (2013) reported similar post-harvest loss of paddy.…”

Mycotoxin concentrations in rice from three climatic locations in Africa as affected by grain quality, production site, and storage duration

“…Although it was expected that parboiling will result in the control of fungi and mycotoxin in milled parboiled rice, Kaushik (2013) In SSA, domestic milled rice (white and parboiled) is mostly of low quality and characterized by low head rice, high proportions of impurities, and chalky grains. In addition, both suboptimal pre-and postharvest practices are commonly used (Amponsah et al, 2017;Mapiemfu et al, 2017;Ndindeng et al, 2015). This rice is mostly sold in bulk or stored in plastic woven bags, jute bags, or bulk storage systems.…”

“…In each of these segments, the physicochemical, nutritional, and economic value of the milled rice can be reduced by microbial invasions especially in the humid tropics (Gummert, Balingbing, Barry, & Estevez, ). Farmer's practices and environmental conditions that enhance insect propagation, microbial proliferation, and mycotoxin production during these production and processing stages include the following: the use of disease‐infected seeds, the nonelimination of disease‐infected plants during production, poor harvesting, threshing, drying, parboiling, and milling methods favoring grain damage and/or their contamination (Amponsah, Addo, Dzisi, Moreira, & Ndindeng, ; Mapiemfu et al, ; Ndindeng et al, ) and storage of grains in systems that favor the re‐absorption of moisture or expose them to high oxygen levels (Fleurat‐Lessard, ; Magan, Hope, Cairns, & Aldred, ), which promote microbial proliferation. Enormous quality deterioration occurs during storage (Majumder, Bala, Arshad, Haque, & Hossain, ) including mycotoxigenic secretion by contaminants predominantly represented by the genera Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium (Makun, Dutton, Njobeh, Mwanza, & Kabiru, ; Makun, Gbodi, Akanya, Salako, & Ogbadu, ; Reddy, Reddy, & Muralidharan, ).…”