Development of a lemongrass harvesting implement

Omar, Muhamad Abbqarry (2020) Development of a lemongrass harvesting implement. [Project Paper] (Submitted)

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Abstract

The demand for lemongrass in Malaysia has been on the increase, but the production from local farmers cannot be supported due to labour shortage. This study aimed at designing and developing a prototype of lemongrass harvesting implement to be used by smallholder farmers. Based on the data collected from physical properties and manual harvesting performance, a new prototype-harvesting implement was designed and fabricated. In this study, the characteristics of the lemongrass evaluated were the size, weight, rhizome and root zone, and planting distance of the lemongrass for each variety. The different varieties of lemongrass determined were Serai Kampung, Peha Ayam, and Serai Gajah. The size and the weight of the Serai Kampung, Peha Ayam, and Serai Gajah were 117.6 cm, 141.8 cm, 156.2 cm, 1.14 kg, 5.92 kg, and 4.4 kg respectively. The root zone had been determined in range 10 cm to 13 cm depth and this data were used to design the blade that could penetrate to that depth. The field efficiency of manual harvesting was 0.0038 ha/hr for Peha Ayam, 0.0018 ha/hr for Serai Gajah, and 0.0025 ha/hr for Serai Kampung. Evaluation of mechanical harvesting would cover the design analysis, field performance of mechanical harvesting, and draft estimation. The draft estimation from this study was 1.06kN on the sandy loam soil with coarse type soils, the speed of the tractor was 10 km/hr with a machine width of 73.6 cm. In conclusion, the lemongrass harvesting implement was able to do the harvesting process in the field.

Item Type:	Project Paper
Faculty:	Faculty of Engineering
Depositing User:	Ms Siti Mariam Giman
Date Deposited:	21 Nov 2022 07:18
Last Modified:	21 Nov 2022 07:18
URI:	http://psaspb.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/592

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