Design and development of a mechanical Makhana Harvester

Abstract

The currently available technology of Makhana harvesting is not only indigenous and manual but also cumbersome and painstaking A mechanical makhana harvester was designed to facilitate makhana harvesting. To growing farmers. Different engineering properties were determined for designing and development of mechanized harvesting equipment. The seed kernel sphericity showed that the makhana kernel was almost sphereical. The mechanized harvesting equipment consisted of three major components, namely main mud pump with semi-open impeller, sieve unit and operator unit. The mechanical makhana harvester was found to be efficient in the harvesting process of seed from makhana fields. Seeds harvesting by mechanical harvester was 15.8 per cent higher than the manual harvesting as well as 2.8 per cent lower cost of harvesting. Three persons are required for the smooth operation of the makhana harvester, one for moving suction pipe at bottom of growing field, one for pump operation and one for separating makhana seeds from the sieve.