| Turmeric harvester
Turmeric (Curcuma longa Linn) is one of the major spices cultivated in India, in an area of 124600 ha with a production of 487.6 lake tonnes. It is grown largely in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Maharasthra. The method of harvesting is to wet the crop after removal of the cut foliage and the turmeric rhizomes are dugout after a week by skilled labour with a special fork type of spade/pick axe. The damage caused to rhizome by the fork type spade is more because the labour has to dig out the clump all around and in doing so, the fork bruises the rhizome every time it hits the rhizome. The unit consist of a curved blade with three bar points for easy penetration into soil. The blade is fixed at an inclination of 25 degrees to the horizontal. To the rear end of the blade two oscillating sectors with six slats spaced at 25 mm apart are hinged at both ends. The oscillating motion for the slaes is obtained through eccentric provided on either side of the unit. |
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