Development of Powered Groundnut Harvester for Small and Medium Holdings in North Kordofan State in Western Sudan

Moayad B. Zaied¹, Ahmed M. El Naim^2, , Mohammed H. Dahab³ and Afraa S. Mahgoub⁴

¹Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Kordofan, Elobied, Sudan

²Department of Crop Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Kordofan, Elobied, Sudan, P.O. 160.

³Department of Agric. Eng., Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Sudan

⁴Ministry of Agriculture of North Kordofan State, Elobied, Sudan

Cite this paper:
Moayad B. Zaied, Ahmed M. El Naim, Mohammed H. Dahab and Afraa S. Mahgoub. Development of Powered Groundnut Harvester for Small and Medium Holdings in North Kordofan State in Western Sudan. World Journal of Agricultural Research. 2014; 2(3):119-123. doi: 10.12691/wjar-2-3-6

Abstract

A Powered groundnut harvesting machine was designed and fabricated. The optimum machine diggers were selected using computer simulation method in ANSYS 11 program. The machine was tested in sandy and clayey sand soil. It was found that the effective time and total time recorded by the machine in sandy soil were lower than in clayey sand soil by 0.050 hr. Fuel consumption rate in sandy soil was lower than that in clayey sand soil by 0.7 L / ha. Machine field speed in sandy soil was higher than speed in clayey sand soil by 0.69 km / hr, it was also found that the values of machine theoretical field capacity, effective field capacity in sandy soil were higher than the values in clayey sand soil by 0.061 ha / h and 0.048 ha / h respectively while field efficiency in clayey sand soil was higher than that in sandy soil by 1.2 %. The differences were significant at 0.05 level and it can be concluded that the machine is efficient in harvesting the groundnut crop particularly in clayey sand soil. Hydraulic system and gear box were needed to enhance maneuverability and to control the digging speed of the machine.

Keywords:
groundnut harvester digger simulation root crops harvesting

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